Jonesboro rolls past LR Central

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

— Junior guard Kahron Ross scored 16 points and made six steals to lead No. 3 Jonesboro to a convincing 66-39 victory over host Little Rock Central on Tuesday night.

Jonesboro (14-2, 2-0 7A/6A-East) scored the final 14 points of the first quarter on its way to notching its ninth consecutive victory.

“You guys here in central Arkansas get to watch [Little Rock] Parkview, North Little Rock and Little Rock Hall, and we all play similiar basketball,” Jonesboro Coach Wes Swift said. “We’re going to get up in you. We’re going to pressure you. All of those teams have really good guards and when you have good guards you get good decisions made. When you do that, you can get on some nice little runs.”

Jonesboro’s scoring streak eventually reached 16 consecutive points as it turned a 7-6 deficit into a 23-7 lead.

Central (3-7, 0-2) was guilty of 11 first-half turnovers and trailed 36-17 at the half.

Randle Toliver added 15 points to Jonesboro’s total, while Aaron Washington scored 12 points and Marquise Pointer 11. Washington led the Hurricane in rebounding with seven.

Eric Nichols led Central with nine points.

Central outscored Jonesboro 10-2 in the first three minutes of the second half and drew within 11. The Tigers’ early third-quarter outburst was led by four points and six rebounds from Kyle Nelson, who finished with a game-high eight rebounds.

But Jonesboro scored the final 11 points of the third quarter and the first nine points of the fourth quarter to offset the Tigers’ rally.

Sports, Pages 23 on 01/09/2013