Just when you think it couldn’t get any better, it does.

Bryan County’s boys, playing as a No. 3 seed, earned their first state playoff win in basketball since 1998 last Wednesday with a resounding 73-45 win at No. 1 seed Montgomery County.

Then on Saturday night Coach Jason Napier’s Redskins, not content just to be in the tournament, stunned everyone but themselves by knocking off favored No. 1 seed Mount Zion, 58-57, to advance to the Elite Eight of the Class A-DII playoffs.

Bryan County (22-8) will play at Greene County (21-7), another No. 1 seed, on Wednesday night. Should they win, the Redskins would square off against the winner of the McIntosh County Academy vs. Mitchell County game 7 p.m. Friday at Georgia State College and University in Milledgeville. The state championship game is March 7 at 3 p.m. at the Macon Centreplex.

The Redskins were last in the Elite Eight in 1997. Their best ever state tournament run came in 1993 when they lost to county rival Richmond Hill in the championship game.

Napier, in his first season at Bryan County after coaching for 25 years in Effingham County, is seeing his team playing its best basketball of the season despite having lost leading scorer Elijah Mincey in the third quarter of the final regular season game against Savannah High due to a dislocated patella. Mincey is scheduled to have surgery in April.

The Redskins have now won four straight games and 10 of their last 12. The only losses in that stretch were to Savannah High and MCA.

While Bryan County’s strong run may come as a surprise to many, it is also a reflection of playing in a rugged Region 3 which has three of its four teams still alive. Savannah and McIntosh County are ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively in the state by the AJC. Of the Redskins’ losses five were inflicted by those two teams.

Greene County, which is located in Greensboro, and the Redskins share one regular season opponent:  Bryan County beat Lake Oconee Academy, 58-44, back in December. The Tigers swept LCA, 81-49 and 55-53.