Much bigger Columbus squad ends George County's season

JACKSON - The Columbus Falcons looked like the class of 6A boys with an impressive 82-49 victory over George County Saturday at the Mississippi Coliseum.

George County hung with the much taller team early in the game. Columbus led 13-10 after one quarter, but the second quarter was the beginning of the end for the Rebels as the Falcons led 35-23 at the half.

Columbus had three players score in double digits with Cameron Douglas leading the way with 23 points and five rebounds.

Robert Woodard finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds and senior guard Javonte McDavid added 16 points for Columbus (23-6).

Columbus featured six players 6-foot-6 or taller, including two players who are both 6-foot-9 - Jartavius Dobbs and Artavious McDyess, who is the son of former NBA All-Star Antonio McDyess.

"You always like to get a look at a team in person. I've seen college teams that didn't have that much size overall," George County coach Ron Renfroe said. "I thought our guys played a good first half. We had three instances right at the end of the half where it could have been down to six."

George County junior guard LaRaymond Spivery had 13 points and eight rebounds on 4-of-18 shooting to lead the Rebels.

Spivery and the rest of his teammates had a hard time getting to the basket against Columbus, which had a total of 10 blocks.

Columbus also won the rebounding battle, 47-31.

George County shot just 29 percent from the field while Columbus hit 53.3 percent of its shots.

"We knew coming in that George County was going to take a lot of outside shots," Columbus coach Luther Riley said. "A part of their strategy is getting second chance shots so we had to limit them to just one shot or try to get a turnover."

Junior guard Tyrese Fryfogle was the only other George County player in double digits with 10 points.

The Rebels needed to hit their 3-pointers Saturday, but only managed to hit 5-of-14 after missing all seven in the first half.

"You're always concerned with the open background (at the coliseum)," Renfroe said. "I knew early we probably wouldn't shoot it well. We definitely wanted to work inside, out. You've got to make your outside shots against them because they're so long inside. They were hard to stop around the basket for sure."

George County's season came to a close with a record of 17-7 after winning Region 7-6A and making the program's first trip to Jackson since the 1991 season.

"Our guys gave great effort and fought to the end," Renfroe said. "Our guys never gave up. I think we've exceeded everybody's expectations this year, winning district and getting up here. Hopefully, this leaves a taste in everybody's mouth to want to get back to Jackson. I'm proud of their effort."

Spivery and Fryfogle, who are both stars on the George County football team, will return for their senior campaigns in 2016-17.

Woodard is a super talented sophomore for the Falcons who stands 6-foot-6. He is considered one of the top players in the nation for the class of 2018 and holds scholarship offers from Baylor, Mississippi State and Tennessee.

This story was originally published March 5, 2016 at 7:32 PM with the headline "Much bigger Columbus squad ends George County's season."