SOCIAL CIRCLE, Ga. — Head coach Taylor Jackson knew heading into the 2022-23 season that this year’s team will have a lot of trials by fire. It doesn’t get much hotter than the atmosphere inside Social Circle’s gymnasium Tuesday night against Morgan County. 

Through it all, the Redskins avenged their earlier season loss and downed the Bulldogs 59-50. 

Many moments became so intense that at one point in the third quarter, Jackson ditched his dress jacket and rolled up his sleeves while coaching. 

“We do it to ourselves with the scheduling,” Jackson said with a hoarse voice. “We’ve been in an atmosphere like that in the early season so far. We are getting more accustomed to the guys who have to produce in that environment.” 

A few Redskins had monumental moments throughout the closely contested game. But things got really heated down the stretch of the third quarter. 

Lamarius Jackson broke away for what seemed to be an easy fast break layup. However, a Morgan County player raced down and fouled Lamarius on the attempt that the referees doubled down on, counting it as a technical foul. 

That helped cap off the third frame in which the Redskins outscored Morgan County 21-9 to give themselves a 46-27 lead. 

Morgan County put together a run of its own, trimming its deficit to just nine points with 4:04 remaining in the game. 

But the Redskins’ aggressive style on both ends of the floor proved too much. 

By the 1:56 mark, Social Circle had rebuilt its lead 59-44 and Bulldog fans could be seen heading for the exits. 

While Tuesday was a home game for Social Circle, there were times where it seemed like a neutral site contest with both programs’ fans showing up in big numbers. 

It was reminiscent of a playoff game. 

“It was a nice atmosphere tonight,” SCHS principal Tim Armstrong told Jackson after the game.

Dec. 13’s victory over the Bulldogs improved Social Circle to 5-1 overall, with the lone loss coming against Morgan County on Dec. 2, 77-67. That loss caused the Redskins to honor their program rule of dressing up on gameday in the regular season for the first time since Jan. 16, 2021. 

Jackson was proud of his team’s response to the loss a few days ago. 

“I told them before the season that the probability of us going 25-0 is zero,” Jackson said. “So, we need to go ahead and prepare ourselves now and think about how we’re going to respond if/when we do lose. And, for those who have never faced real adversity, they’re the leaders now. It showed in spurts today that we can be a really good team, we just have to be that for four quarters.” 

Lamarius is the leading scorer for the Redskins averaging 24 points per outing. His twin brother, Quin Jackson and DaShon Hyman each averaged 15 points, too, to help lead the team to a 5-1 start to the season. 

They’ve done so while going up against higher classification competition, too. 

For instance, Morgan County is a Class AAA school. Social Circle beat Walnut Grove 73-70, which is a Class AAAA program not to mention downing Class AAAAA M.L. King High School by nearly 30 points on Nov. 29. 

Social Circle’s upcoming schedule doesn’t get much easier, either. 

On Friday, it’ll host Class AAA Monroe Area with a trip to Class AAAAAAA Archer on Saturday. Next week, the Redskins will face Class AAAAAA Alcovy on Dec. 20 and then head to Thomson on Dec. 22. To finish the calendar year, Social Circle will take on Mays of Class AAAAA. 

Jackson believes there are lessons inside the first six games that the players can learn from to improve their chances moving forward. 

“We need to be mentally dialed in the shooting,” Jackson said. “We need to really work harder at game speed shots and every rep has to matter. If we get that shooting better, we can be really dangerous.”