JONESBORO - The third time proved to be the charm for Jonesboro in their third match up of the year with North Little Rock, defeating the Charging Wildcats 64-62 after losing their two previous match ups.

Jonesboro lost to North Little Rock 68-41 in November in Forrest City at Rumble on the Ridge and 61-58 at North Little Rock last month.

Senior Kahron Ross led Jonesboro with a game-high 28 points, followed by 12 from Brad Sherrill and nine by Marquise Pointer. Jonesboro (21-3, 9-1 7A/6A-East) finished the night with eight made threes while making 14 of 20 shots from the charity stripe.

Anton Beard scored 16 to lead North Little Rock (19-2, 9-1), followed by 15 from KeVaughn Allen, 12 from K.J. Hill and 10 by Adrian Moore. North Little Rock finished the game with only two made threes, both in the fourth quarter by Beard. The Charging Wildcats made 20 of 25 shots from the free throw line.

North Little Rock jumped out to a 14-12 lead at the end of the first quarter as all five starters reached the scoring column as the Charging Wildcats started the game on a 12-2 run before allowing Jonesboro back in the game with a run of their own, 10-2, to trail by only two after one.

Jonesboro outscored North Little Rock 12-8 in the second quarter to take a 24-22 lead over the Charging Wildcats into the half. Jarma Perkins gave Jonesboro the lead as time expired, knocking down a three from the right corner. Ross led Jonesboro with five points in the quarter as the Hurricane finished the first half with five made shots from beyond the arc.

Jonesboro dominated the majority of the third quarter, outscoring North Little Rock 26-13 to build a 15-point, 50-35 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Jonesboro scored the first seven points of the quarter to lead 31-22 and eventually pushed their lead to 13 points,38-25, after a pull-up jumper from Ross with 4:39 on the clock. The Hurricane led by 15 points, 48-33, with 1:25 to play after a field goal by Darren Veasley and again 50-35 after Sherrill scored a layup right before time expired.

Jonesboro allowed North Little Rock to crawl back in the game and take a 60-58 lead with 2:08 to play in the fourth quarter after two free throws by Allen, but Jonesboro would outscore the Charging Wildcats 6-2 over the final two minutes to hang on for the victory.

Sports, Pages 24 on 02/15/2014