With Bryan County’s girls' basketball regular season now over, next up is the Region 3A-DII tournament next week at Metter.

While the Redskins (21-4, 13-3) won’t be playing this week the other teams in the region will, which means Coach Mario Mincey and his team will be scoreboard watching because results this week will determine seeding and a possible automatic berth in the state playoffs.

The team drawing Mincey’s intense interest is McIntosh County Academy (12-11, 11-3) which plays at Portal (6-15, 3-11) on Tuesday and hosts Metter (14-3, 12-2) on Friday. A Buccaneers loss in either game would lock up a second-place finish for the Redskins and a bye into the semifinals and a spot in the state playoff field.

On the other hand, an MCA win over Metter—assuming the Bucs beat Portal and Metter handles Claxton on Tuesday—would result in a three-way tie for first with McIntosh getting the No. 1 seed for the region tourney based on tiebreakers. Metter would be No. 2 and Bryan County No. 3.

“It’s crazy,” Mincey said. “This just proves what I’ve been saying all along:  our region is one of the strongest in the state. ECI is going to finish fifth and they’re scary. I wouldn’t want to play them with the state playoffs on the line.

“This is why I’m in favor of going to the power ratings next year. We’re going to have a good team in our region not make it to the state playoffs. There are some regions whose region champion won’t be as good as our No. 4 or fifth-place team.”

There are 63 Class A-DII teams in the state and in the MaxPreps power rankings Region 3 has five of the top 21 teams: Bryan County is No. 4, Metter is No. 7, Screven is No. 13, McIntosh is No. 16 and ECI is No. 21. In a power ratings system, all five would be in the 32-team state playoff field.

“We’re going to finish third at worst and if we do that means we would have to win our first game to get in the state playoffs,” Mincey said. “It would be a shame a team that won 21 games didn’t make the playoffs and four teams from a really weak region did.”

The Redskins closed out their season last Friday night with a 66-30 win over Claxton that saw them hit 12 3-pointers including four by sophomore Layla Mincey who led all scorers with 20 points and also led in rebounds and blocks with eight and four, respectively.

Liz Harvey scored 13 points to go with six rebounds and five steals, getting eight points in the first quarter that included two treys. She finished with three treys as did Laney Sehr who had 11 points as did Jasmine Mikell.

The outcome of the game was never in doubt. Bryan County led 15-4 four minutes in, had a 31-19 lead at the half and blew it out with a 24-6 explosion in the third quarter. Four players enjoyed eight-point quarters:  Harvey in the first, Mikell in the second followed by Mincey and Sehr in the third. Mikell, who is committed to Auburn-Montgomery, was playing in front of AUM coaches who drove to Pembroke from Montgomery, Ala., to watch her play on Senior Night.

The Redskins also got a major boost, Mincey said, with the recent return of senior reserve McKinley Walker who has been out with an injury.

With no juniors on the roster and only one sophomore in Mincey it’s been all freshmen coming off the bench so Walker’s return is important.

“We’re coming along good and I’m okay with the way we’re playing,” Mincey said. “It’s good to get McKinley back. She’s been out for three weeks or so and she adds depth. With her it’s not all freshmen coming off the bench.”