By Bill Glass
BPC Public Relations
MOUNT VERNON -- After scoring two victories last week, the Brewton-Parker College men's basketball team has won five straight games and finds itself just one game out of the lead in the Georgia-Alabama-Carolina Conference standings.
And while the Barons (15-9 overall, 10-4 GACC) have succeeded largely because of a solid team effort, junior post Bryan Jett posted numbers in the two wins last week that earned him conference player of the week honors.
Jett, a 6-foot-7 native of Hampton, posted his 15th double-double of the season Saturday with 32 points and 15 rebounds in Brewton-Parker's 85-74 victory at North Georgia College and State University in Dahlonega.
That win followed the Barons' 81-59 rocking of Georgia Southwestern State University on Feb. 19 in the Student Activities Center, when Jett scored 25 points and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds.
For the two games, Jett averaged 28.5 points, 12 rebounds, five blocked shots, one steal and one assist while hitting 21 of 33 field goals (63.6 percent, including 3 of 3 from 3-point range) and 85.7 percent from the free-throw line (12 of 14).
The Barons' week began by scoring their second big win over longtime rival and perennial conference power Georgia Southwestern, which followed the Barons' 81-68 win over the Hurricanes last month in Americus.
The rematch was very competitive to begin with but at the 10:40 mark, Barons head coach Steve Barker called a timeout and asked his team to pick it up. "I was not happy with our defensive effort and we were not rebounding the ball," Barker said.
The Barons responded and went on a 13-2 tear to end the first half 40-27. In the second half, BPC kept up the pressure and the Barons' lead never fell below 13 points.
While Jett just missed getting a double-double against Southwestern, senior post Hector Solano of Miami, Fla., reached the double-double mark, his third of the year, with 20 points and 11 rebounds.
Senior guard Jarvis Smith of Atlanta contributed 11 points, including a 3-pointer that ended the first half. "Jarvis has been a mainstay for us recently," Barker said of Smith, who has averaged 10 points a game over the last four games. "He is shooting with confidence."
Overall, the Barons have been shooting well. Against the Hurricanes, they were 53 percent from the floor, including 47 percent from 3-point range, and 77 percent from the charity stripe. The Barons out-rebounded their opponent 35-30.
Senior forward Fred Ford of Buena Vista was the leading scorer for Georgia Southwestern (14-13, 6-8 entering the week) with 14 points and six rebounds, and senior forward Jammar Major of La Grange had 11 points and eight rebounds for the Hurricanes.
While North Georgia (12-16, 2-12) brings up the rear in the GACC race, the Saints have proven as dangerous as some of the curvy mountain roads in the northern part of the state. The Barons heeded those warnings for their visit to Dahlonega on Saturday, and their preparation paid off when the Barons left with an 11-point win.
"North Georgia beat Southern Poly, the conference leader, a week earlier at home," Barker said, "so we felt that we were entering hostile territory."
Nevertheless, the Barons played confidently at the start of the game despite not shooting well early. Since the Saints were giving the Barons openings, Barker instructed his team to go inside.
The strategy worked as Jett took the game over, scoring 16 points and pulling down 11 rebounds in the first half.
With a 43-33 lead at the mid-point, Barker called attention to the gaps the Saints were leaving in their interior defense and asked the team to keep going inside. Thus the second half was more of the same.
The closest the Saints got was within six points of the lead. At that point, the Barons made two free throws when the Saints coach was called for a technical foul, and then in-bounded the ball to senior guard Jarvis Smith, who arched in a 3-pointer. The Barons then held the 11-point lead to the end.
Brewton-Parker ended up shooting 44 percent from the field, 40 percent from 3-point range and a stellar 86 percent on free throws.
Sophomore guard Adrian Sing of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, followed Jett's 32-point explosion by scoring 14 points and grabbing five rebounds for the Barons. Junior guard Dominique Dieujuste of Cleveland, Ga., led the Saints with 16 points and three rebounds.
The Barons play another hot team Thursday when Reinhardt College also brings a five-game winning streak into the teams' 8 p.m. contest at the Student Activities Center. The Eagles (14-13, 9-5) are one game back of Brewton-Parker in a tie for third with Southern Wesleyan University (S.C.).
After entertaining Reinhardt, the Barons head north again, this time to Rome, where they play Shorter College (14-12, 6-8 entering the week) in a 5 p.m. contest.
-BPC-
