Pressure gets best of 'Pack

The moist eyes and long faces said all a 71-55 score could not.

Michelle Swiec and Melissa Lewis, twin engines that have powered the Greenbrier girls basketball program to the highest highs, were not happy.

"We don't like losing," Swiec said. "Especially the way we did tonight. This was not Greenbrier basketball."

A Region 2-AAAA clash between two state-ranked teams did not disappoint for three quarters. Greenbrier was ranked No. 7 in the latest Georgia Sportswriters Association poll. Jones County came in at No. 2.

"We had this game circled," Lewis said. "Underlined. Boldfaced. Highlighted and color-coded as the big game this season. We'd set our season and record up for this. And we finish like that. We're better than this."

The nutshell of the loss came after Lewis' layin with 8.3 seconds to go in the third quarter to put her team down 49-45. She tweaked her ankle and had to leave the game for a short period.

It was one of those nights for the Wolfpack. Anything good was always followed by the bad.

"We were on the roller coaster tonight," Lewis said. "So many shifts of emotion. Ups. Downs. Loopity loops. Corkscrews. We went through it all."

And it was fully evident after her apparent ankle sprain.

Jones County (20-1, 6-0) pushed its lead to six when Angelica Manuel's rebound basket beat the buzzer to end the third period. The score was 65-45 with 2:08 left before Swiec had the next Greenbrier points.

"We totally lost our game after that," Greenbrier coach Garrett Black said. "We went cold and we didn't make good decisions with the ball. When you do that against a great team like Jones, they are just going to eat you up."

It was an uphill climb all night for Greenbrier.

"We're not used to that intense of a press as what they brought," said Lewis, who led Greenbrier with 15 points. "A lot of teams don't keep pressing us like that."

Swiec, the team's leading scorer, picked up three fouls in the half and had only three points at the break. But the home side was only down 35-33.

"I was happy with that," Black said. "Considering the circumstances we were in the thick of it. But two things hurt with Michelle in foul trouble. Michelle was a bit timid after she got in foul trouble. She didn't go to the basket and draw fouls like she does. And we had to back off our best responses to pressure with her in trouble. It affected the best ways we had to counter their trapping game."

The Lady Greyhounds were led by 21 points from standout Chimere Jordan, and ophomore Kiswanna Ross added 15 as Jones County went about nine deep against Greenbrier.

The Lady Wolfpack (21-2, 5-1) used seven players, but the difference between the two benches was clear.

"We tried to bring pressure against them tonight in the hopes we could wear them down," Jones County coach Kurt Greene said. "It looks like we gassed them in the fourth quarter a bit."

Reach Jeff Sentell at (706) 823-3425 or jeff.sentell@augustachronicle.com.