The Wilcox Central Jaguars proved too much for the Greenville Tigers to handle.

The Jaguars ran away with the game, winning 81-60.

Wilcox jumped ahead early, with the help of some superb three-point shooting.

“They came out on fire,” said head coach Jerome Harris III. “We played okay, but they just kept making threes, and we’d only answer it with a two.”

Greenville struggled offensively and would end the first quarter down, 28-12.

The Tigers faired no better in the second, although Wilcox’s three-point shooting cooled off a bit. Za’darius Smith managed to put away 5 points, aided by Rashad Smith who tallied four, but the Jaguars again broke 20 points for the quarter, to put Wilcox ahead 49-24 at half.

The second half Tigers showed a spark of life, capitalizing on four out of five free-throw attempts to help Greenville post 18 points for the quarter to Wilcox’s 20. The two-point difference signaled the best all-around quarter for the Tigers so far, but Wilcox continued to pull away.

Defensively, the Tiger’s came alive in the fourth, holding the Jaguars to a mere 12 points.

As the old adage goes, however, it was too little, too late. Despite outscoring Wilcox by 6 points, the damage had been done and the game closed 81-60.

Harris said the team is in a similar situation to the end of last basketball season.

“We are still searching for some of the chemistry we lost,” Harris said. “As long as we can keep getting better, and we can get the wins in the area tournament, we will be alright. That’s what we are mainly focusing on right now.”