Navarro Basketball: Dawgs win fourth in a row
Feb. 26—You know life is good and things are going well when you miss 24 free throws and go 3-for-16 from beyond the arc and still come home with a win.
That's what Navarro's Bulldogs did Wednesday when they hung on to beat Jacksonville 82-79 on the road to win their fourth game in a row.
Every game is huge in the tight Region XIV race, where the Dawgs are in fifth place, but just two games behind first-place Panola and Trinity Valley, which are both 7-1.
Navarro is now 5-3 after bouncing back from a 1-3 start, but on Wednesday it was all about holding off the Jaguars, who stormed back with a 53-point second half to throw a scare into Grant McMillan's team.
The Dawgs, who have had some nice second-half comebacks of their own this year, raced out to a 41-26 halftime lead only to watch Jacksonville go on a 40-26 run that closed the lead to 67-66 with five minutes left.
Akol Mawein had a big night for Navarro with an impressive double-double, pouring in 22 points to go along with 13 rebounds, and Jaylen Harrison had a 20-point night, hitting 7-of-12 shots from the floor. Drue Drinnon and Jules Moor scored 11 points each.
The Dawgs shot 51.8 percent from the floor but couldn't make free throws. They went 23-of-47 from the line, where they could have easily put the game away.
But Navarro came through down the stretch, and now travels to play Coastal Bend on Sunday before playing back-to-back games against first-place Panola and TVCC. They face Panola on Wednesday at home and travel to Athens next Saturday.
