Life at the top can be tough as Bryan County’s girls found out against a scrappy Emanuel County Institute team last Friday night.
The Redskins, ranked No. 1 in the state in Class A-DII by Maxpreps and No. 3 by Sandy’s Spiel, used a strong start to hold off the upset-minded Bulldogs, 47-37, for their 10th straight win to maintain their grip on first-place in Region 3A-DII.
Coach Mario Mincey’s team is now 13-1 overall, 6-0 in play going into a Tuesday night game with Jenkins County. Bryan County will be at Claxton on Friday before starting the second round of region play Tuesday at McIntosh Academy.
Jasmine Mikell, bound for Auburn-Montgomery, led the Redskins with 16 points while fellow senior Laney Sehr added 14, getting 11 in the first quarter. Sophomore Layla Mincey scored 10 and continued to control the boards as she pulled down a game high 14 rebounds.
“They’re an improved team,” Mincey said of the Bulldogs. “This is a strong region. I keep saying this over and over and I don’t understand why people don’t understand that part.
“If the fourth or fifth-place teams in this region were in another region they would be in the playoffs. ECI could be a No. 2 seed in another region.”
Unfortunately, the team from Twin Cities is in its current region through this season and finds itself behind Bryan County, Metter, McIntosh Academy and Screven in addition an improving Portal team.
With Sehr lighting it up from long range in the opening eight minutes—she hit three of her four 3-pointers in the first quarter along with a pair of free throws—Bryan County jumped out to a 14-5 lead before ECI started finding its legs with three minutes left in the first half.
With four different players scoring to lead a 7-4 start to the second quarter it looked as if the Redskins were going to break the game open as they enjoyed a 24-11 lead following a trey by Mikell with 3:10 on the clock.
The Bulldogs, led by sophomores Senaria Hill and Na/Zyiah Mincey, refused to fold and trimmed the deficit to eight, 25-17 but Mikell converted a one-and before hitting a free throw with five seconds remaining for a 29-19 cushion at the end of the half.
The lead was 14 points at 35-21 following a 3-pointer by Mikell who then added a free throw. The Bulldogs showed their mettle though as they closed the third quarter on a 10-0 run to narrow the gap to four, 35-31, going into the final quarter.
The lead was five at 42-37, when Sehr buried a trey and Mikell hit a pair of free throws with 2:41 to play for a 10-point advantage which was too much for ECI to overcome.
The Redskins had last played 13 days ago and Mincey said he used the holiday break to work with his young players—there are four sophomores and six freshmen on the roster—and review their play for the first 13 games of the season.
“The biggest thing we did was to get our young ones more time and catch them up on some things,” said the veteran coach who is in his 19th season at Bryan County. “We worked on shooting the ball more, and on our free throws.
“It was really just trying to keep everybody together. It’s hard coming off break and then [to] get a region game the first game back. It’s tough, really tough right after the new year.”
The work showed results, especially at the foul line where the Redskins were 20-for-29. In their last outing against Screven County they were 19-36 including a miserable 8-21 in the first half.