Just a few hours before tip-off against Apex, Robert Clemons let his Athens Drive boys’ basketball team know that Josh Davis, the Jaguars’ leading scorer and rebounder, would not be available against the Cougars because of a lingering foot injury.

“We had to fight through it,” said Athens forward Ulysses Watkins. “We were missing our best player, so we had to come together as a team tonight.”

And the Jaguars did just that.

After squandering an 11-point third-quarter lead and facing a three-point deficit to start the fourth quarter, the Jaguars gutted out a 51-45 win over the Cougars on Dec. 18.

Watkins led a balanced scoring effort with 12 points on 5-of-12 shooting to go along with 13 rebounds. T.J. Kornegay had 12 points off the bench, and Quentin Edmundson scored 10.

“Even though Josh is our leading scorer and rebounder, Quentin, Ulysses and T.J. give us other options where you can’t key on one person,” said Clemons, whose team improved to 8-1 (2-0 in the Tri-Eight) with the win over Apex. “If you take one away, we have other kids who can make plays. That’s been the big difference in this year’s team than with what we’ve had in the past.”

For Apex, it was the Cougars’ fourth straight loss.

“I told the guys I’m responsible to get them ready to play, and I don’t feel like our mindset is right right now,” said Apex coach David Neal. “I think we’re not expecting to win and not expecting to make plays. We’ve just got to keep plugging away.”

Most frustrating for the Cougars to swallow was they had the advantage heading into the fourth quarter.

Athens scored five quick points to start the second half and led 34-23 with 6:47 to play in the third quarter.

Apex outscored the Jaguars 17-3 the remainder of the quarter to take a 40-37 advantage into the fourth. Center Weston Murphy (21 points, 10 rebounds, two blocks) and DeArius White combined for 15 of the 17 points on the run.

“Weston’s been key down low all year,” Neal said. “When he wasn’t on the floor, we really struggled to score. DeArius played a great game. He’s sick as a dog, and I thought he played his heart out. He finished down low and got the ball to [Murphy]. They do a good job playing together.”

But then the Cougars went cold.

In the fourth quarter, they shot 1-for-8 from the floor and 3-for-7 at the free-throw line.

“We had a horrendous time in the fourth quarter trying to score,” Neal said. “I told the guys Athens probably had a lot to do with that. They’re athletic and they play good man-to-man ‘D’.” Said Athens’ Edmundson, “That’s our key, we play defense with heart.”

Athens also forced three turnovers in the fourth quarter, none bigger than when Watkins forced a five-second call on the perimeter with the Jaguars ahead 45-42 with under a minute to play. Athens turned around and scored on a pair of Edmundson free throws, and the Jags kept it a two-possession game the rest of the way.

“Every night, we’re going to have to play,” Clemons said. “We don’t have one of those teams [in the Tri-Eight] where we can just fall out on the court and just win a ball game. We’re going to have to play well. Apex is coached well and they’re going to do some good things. We came out knowing we’d have to play well in order to win.”