No. 3 Graford Jackrabbits roll past Poolville, 57-17

POOLVILLE – There’s not a basketball coach in America that won’t accept their team shooting better than 50% from the floor.

Graford did just that in three of four quarters Tuesday, Dec. 7, ending up with a 55% shooting percentage on 21-38 from the field in a 57-17 win over the host Monarchs. The Jackrabbits go to 13-1 with the win.

A slow start for both teams, where neither team scored for the first four minutes thanks to a delayed offense by Poolville, kept things from being worse. Graford mentor Jeff Bell said he expected that.

“I told the kids they were going to hold on to the ball and to be prepared for that and to guard for long possessions,” Bell said. “Once we got rolling though, we were able to do what we do.”

Using the size of 6’7” junior Colin Roberts for a pair of inside baskets, Graford jumped out to a 7-0 lead in just over two minutes. The Monarchs, who had five sophomore starters, got on the board with an Eli Lang bucket with 1:22 left in the quarter.

Poolville would get within two in the final minutes before a third Roberts basket gave Graford a 9-5 lead after one.

Bell said Roberts has been finding his place on the team and getting his role on the squad.

“He has been getting better every day and getting into his role on the squad,” Bell said.

With Graford getting into its groove offensively, senior guard Marc Matthews found his groove and buried a pair of threes and an inside bucket to extend the lead to 10 in the first 2:30 of the frame. Poolville couldn’t find its rhythm due to the Rabbit defense, which allowed just one basket in each of the final three quarters and just 13% for the contest.

Matthews, who had four threes in a 14-point quarter, had some help from outside from Coy Ishmael as the Rabbits were 7-8 from the floor shooting enroute to a 28-9 lead at the half.

For the full story, see the Wednesday, Dec. 15 edition of the Jacksboro Herald-Gazette.