If Savannah High’s girls’ team was looking for Bryan County to have a letdown after it had ground out a 42-36 win over Metter it didn’t get it. Far from it.
The Redskins, ranked No. 5 in the state in Class A-DII by Sandy’s Spiel.com, shredded the Blue Jackets with ease as they cruised to a 50-11 win at Savannah’s Ron Love Athletic Center last Friday night. This came three days after the win over No. 9 Metter.
Bryan County (9-1, 4-0) took on defending Region 3A-DII champion Screven County (5-2, 3-0) on Tuesday night at home. The Gamecocks were ranked No. 4 giving the region three teams in the top 10.
Coach Mario Mincey’s team will be on the road Friday and Saturday as it takes on Wheeler County and South Effingham, respectively. After this weekend the Redskins will be idle until Jan. 2, 2026, when they host Emanuel County Institute.
Bryan County got off to a slow start at Savannah, leading 9-2 after one quarter and then turned it on in the second quarter to bolt to a 29-5 halftime lead. For all practical purposes playing the second half was a mere formality against the winless Blue Jackets who lost to Metter, 49-20, the following night.
Savannah had a basket in the first quarter and did not score from the field again until 5:10 remaining in the game. Its five other points came at the free throw line.
In the meantime, the runaway game gave Mincey ample opportunity to play everyone on the roster, often having five freshmen on the floor at a time who more than held their own. And they were playing without perhaps the best freshman of the bunch, 5-foot-11 Mckenzie Smith who was attending a graduation ceremony at Savannah State.
“We’ve got some good freshmen who played well,” Mincey said. “And the good thing about it is I think our seventh and eighth graders may be better. The future looks good.”
Jasmine Mikell scored 14 points to lead the way and helped harass the Blue Jacket guards into too many turnovers to keep track of. Layla Mincey added 12 while Laney Sehr hit a pair of 3-pointers for six points.
The game with Metter was played at a pace which Mincey prefers. Under him the Redskins’ goal is to keep the game in the 30s or low 40s and that’s what they did against the Tigers who prefer to run.
“Our defense played really good,” Mincey said. “We wanted to make it a half-court game because they shoot the ball really well.
“We wanted to make them have to set up,” Mincey said. “We controlled the boards. You can’t get in a run-and-shoot game with Metter and we were able to keep from doing that.”
Mikell, seeking to become the third straight Bryan County player to win Player of the Year honors in the region after Kayley Wedlow and Ashanti Brown, had a solid game as she pumped in 16 points to go with five steals and four assists.
Metter led 8-5 after the first quarter but the tenacious Redskins carved out a 16-13 halftime lead and then built that into a 29-21 cushion going into the fourth. With Bryan County playing stifling defense that eight-point lead looked like 16.
Mincey pulled down 13 rebounds and had two blocks to go with 10 points. Smith had six points and five rebounds plus one block while Liz Harvey turned in her usual workmanlike game with six points, eight rebounds and five steals. Briana Crawford added six rebounds and four points.