The season did not end the way they wanted but there’s no overlooking the accomplishments of Bryan County’s senior girls' basketball players.
The Jasmine Mikell-led Redskins saw their season come to a screeching end last Friday night at Brooks County in the Sweet 16 of the Class A-DII state playoffs. The homestanding Trojans took advantage of uncharacteristic late turnovers and a bad night at the foul line to pull out the 53-47 win.
Seniors Mikell, Liz Harvey, Laney Sehr, Briana Crawford and McKinley Walker were on teams that went 93-21 overall and played in the post-season all four years of their career. They played in four straight region championship games, winning it all two years ago, advanced to the Elite Eight once and the Sweet 16 twice.
Not a shabby performance at all, but the loss to Brooks County (20-9) stung a little more because the Redskins (23-6) were their own worst enemy while playing against a young team which had no seniors and only one junior.
“It was a back-and-forth game,” Coach Mario Mincey said of the concluding game of his 19th season. “We were up by one at the half and down by one at the end of the third quarter.
“In the fourth we could never pull away and late in the game we had some crucial turnovers. To add to it we had our worst shooting percentage from the free throw line all season.”
Free throw shooting had been a hit-and-miss affair for the Redskins all season and that inconsistency caught up with them in a painful way. In a game which it lost by six points Bryan County made only 13-of-31 free throws which computes to 42 per cent.
“It was our lowest percentage from the foul line all season,” Mincey said. “This is obviously something you cannot do in the playoffs, especially on the road.”
Mikell, who started all 114 games of her career and is committed to Auburn-Montgomery, scored 20 points to lead Bryan County. She finished her career with nearly 1,400 points which places her in the top five in school history. Mikell also had four steals and four assists.
Sehr added 15 points but the Trojans held Layla Mincey to six points, 10 under her average, although she pulled down 11 rebounds and had two blocks. Harvey, the team’s best defensive player, had four points and eight rebounds to go with three steals.
In its opening round game against Georgia Military College Prep the Redskins made five of 10 free throws but it was no big deal as they cruised to a 68-26 win. In the 64-57 loss to Metter in the title game Bryan County also had some late critical turnovers while converting 22 of 37 free throws.
Bryan County entered the state playoffs as a No. 2 seed. That means an opening round game against a lower seed and often a fairly easy win.
That was the case for the Redskins who didn’t work up a sweat in beating Georgia Military. However, the second round represents a big step up in competition where every possession, it seems, is critical as is getting points at the foul line.
“I’m thankful I had the chance to coach this senior group,” Mincey said. “We will now look to develop our young nucleus of kids coming back.”
Mincey will be the Redskins’ most experienced player next year. Bryan County did not have a junior on it with all of the key subs being freshmen.
Among the freshmen who showed promise were post players Mckenzie Smith and Harmony Buster along with guards Ramyah Johnson and Tristen Glover just to name a few. Mincey said earlier this season there were some incoming freshmen from a talented middle school team who could compete for playing time, too.