The Putnam County girls basketball team suffered its first loss of the 2025-26 season to Jones County on Jan. 3 but rebounded with two commanding road wins last week over Towers and McNair to begin region play.
Class A Division I’s top-ranked Lady War Eagles improved to 13-1 overall and 2-0 in the region with the wins.
“First of all, all credit to Jones County, a really good basketball program. They beat us,” Putnam County head coach Derrick Arrington said. “Secondly, anytime you lose, from the coach’s standpoint, you made some coaching errors that cost us that night. But then, as I said, we came back, we got to watch film, and the ladies responded. They’ve been accepting tough, hard coaching all season. So, the next day, it was back to business, and they responded well.”
The Lady War Eagles traveled to Decatur to face Towers on Jan. 6 and left with a dominant 67-20 win. They came out strong on both ends of the floor, led by their defense, which forced turnovers that led to points.
The Lady War Eagles ended the week with a 75-19 victory over McNair in Atlanta. It was never a question of whether they would win, as the Lady Mustangs were clearly overmatched in the contest.
Arrington said he thought his team performed well amid all the craziness last week as school started back.
“Coming off the weekend, just getting back to practice last Monday, and having a day to kind of recover and recharge, and then going on the road, it was the first week back to school,” Putnam County’s coach said. “It’s a routine, and we’re all trying to get back to normal. So, there are many operations we were worried about. And then, playing basketball in Atlanta, every team has enough to beat you every night.
"If you’re not focused or prepared, you can get beat on any given night. So, I think we went to Towers on Tuesday and responded well to getting back to what we do best. And then on Friday, we did another good job.”
In the two wins, players Journey Waller, Eryianna Little, Jada Baker, Jaikarccie Smith, and Melody Richardson, among others, performed well. The team got contributions from several different players in the two wins.
Putnam County’s boys will host Southwest Atlanta Christian at home on Tuesday and play Greenforest on the road on Friday, but neither school has a girls team this year, so the Lady War Eagles are off until Jan. 23.
“We’re not treating it like an off week, though. We’ll practice some and prepare the same as if we had a game,” Arrington said.
The Lady War Eagles return to the court Jan. 23, hosting Utopian Academy for the Arts.
They will then face Lamar County at home on Jan. 27. Their last two regular-season games will be Jan. 30 against Jasper County in Monticello and the Feb. 3 finale at home versus Social Circle.