For Coach Mario Mincey and the Bryan County girls’ basketball team, Saturday’s 53-48 loss to South Effingham was another lesson to be filed away in the memory bank.

The Mustangs (5-1), who have had only one winning season since 2016, continued their fast start under fourth-year coach Alexus Parker. They got 21 points from Kailyn Chapman and 16 from Hayden Johnson to hand the Redskins (3-1) their first loss of the season.

Jasmine Mikell, who has committed to play her college basketball at Auburn-Montgomery, had 12 to lead Bryan County. Bria Crawford added 10 and Layla Mincey, who did yeoman’s work on the boards, added nine.

Mikell entered the game having scored 1,000 career points after hitting that magic mark with 21 in a 76-31 win over Harlem last week.

The game was close throughout with neither team able to put any distance between them until the final five minutes when South Effingham, thanks to Johnson’s play, was able to establish a lead and maintain it.

Mincey was shedding no tears as he was pleased with what he saw out of his young team, especially the five freshmen who played meaningful minutes throughout the game including down the stretch.

“Yeah, we’re going to do that,” Mincey said of getting a look at his youngest players in pressure minutes. “We like playing up (SEHS is Class 5A). They’ve got some players. But our freshmen got some minutes and that just helps get us ready for region play.

“When you’re in a game where you’ve got three freshmen playing in the last two or three minutes in a tight game, I just want to see what everybody’s doing,” Mincey said. “I saw a couple of combinations out there I liked.

“I feel good going into region play. Our biggest thing was we lost five seniors who won a bunch of ball games. I want to see if we can come back and match the intensity. We’re a young team and they’ve pretty much passed the test as to where I want them to be at.”

Bryan County opens Region 3A-DII play on Dec. 2 when it hosts McIntosh County Academy and three days later goes to Portal.

“The thing is we use these games to build depth,” said Mincey, adding he did not want to begin region play without seeing any of his six freshmen and four sophomores playing when a game may be on the line.

One freshman in particular who caught Mincey’s eye is Tristen Glover who has played her way into earning playing time.

“I found a kid tonight, the Glover kid,” Mincey said. “She played real good defense and she’s going to get more minutes in the rotation. She scored the last two games and that’s big for a kid that played middle school minutes last year and didn’t play all summer.

“She didn’t play summer ball with us because she was out of town. For her not to have played any at all in the summer and now getting big minutes is what these games are all about.”

South Effingham led 10-9 after the first quarter and it was deadlocked, 24-24, at the half. Chapman scored to start the second but the Redskins then reeled off seven straight points as Laney Sehr hit a 3-pointer and after Crawford put back a Mikell miss Sehr fed Mincey inside for a 31-26 lead.

Parker called time to settle her team down and it responded by forging a 35-34 lead going into the final quarter and it was 38-38 when the Mustangs scored seven straight points, five by Johnson, for a 45-38 lead which proved to be too much to overcome.

Freshman Harmony Buster got the Redskins to within 49-47, with 1:10 when she scored off an excellent pass by Mikell but the Mustangs refused to fold.