MERIDIAN – Trailing by eight with 17:19 to play, Jones used a 20-1 run over a six-minute span and never looked back in an impressive 75-58 Thursday night road win at previously unbeaten Meridian. 

Jones improved to 7-0, 1-0 in the MACCC, while Meridian fell to 7-1, 0-1. 

Jones scored the game's first seven points, highlighted by a Caleb McGill steal and breakaway dunk. 

Meridian answered with an 11-4 run and then took its largest lead of the half at 19-14.

Back-and-forth the final 10 minutes of the period, Meridian hit a three before the halftime horn to take a 31-30 lead.

That last-second shot jumpstarted a 14-4 run for the Eagles as they took their largest lead at 42-34 early second half.

A tough lay-in by Ashton Campbell and a trio of putbacks from Jabari Bowman helped Jones respond with a 14-0 run over the next four minutes. Bowman was unreal the second half, scoring 16 of his career-high 22 points and eating up rebounds.

The Bobcat defense then settled in the final 14 minutes, holding Meridian to just 16 points the rest of the way. Akeem Kirkwood's three-pointer snapped a seven-minute span without a field goal for the Eagles to make it 54-46 with 11:16 left.

It was all Jones down the stretch as Bowman was huge on both ends of the floor. He finished with 22 points and 24 rebounds, the first 20-20 game since Bruce Stevens had 21-22-10 in a 2016 win over Coahoma.

Behind Bowman's 22, Calvin Temple added 19 points, Cowandric Samuel had 12 and Campbell had 11.

Jones hosts Gulf Coast (8-1, 1-0) on Monday for a 6 p.m. tip at A.B. Howard Gymnasium.