When Mario Mincey took over as the girls’ basketball coach at Bryan County success did not come overnight. It was rough going initially starting with an introductory one-win season.
Now in his 19th year Mincey started the season with 321 wins. Among those early losses was seven straight to McIntosh County Academy. Since losing twice in 2015 the Redskins have been making up ground fast.
In holding off the scrappy Buccaneers, 61-45, on Tuesday night behind Jasmine Mikell's 28 points and a strong game off the bench by freshman McKenzie Smith who had 10 the Redskins posted their 12th straight win over McIntosh County.
It was the Region 3A-DII lid-lifter for both teams and Bryan County ran its overall record to 4-1. The Bucs remained winless after four games. McIntosh's losses include games against 7A Camden County and 6A Glynn Academy.
Bryan County entered the game ranked No. 9 in the state in Class A-DII. It will be at Portal on Friday and play at Liberty County at 1:30 p.m. Saturday before hosting No. 7 Metter on Tuesday.
Mikell, a senior who has started every game of her career, was recognized for scoring her 1,000th point earlier this season against Wayne County. Her 30 points that night was a career high.
Despite winning by 16 points the win did not come easy against a much-improved McIntosh team which is looking for its first winning season since 2015. The Bucs were 11-16 last year.
“She played well,” Mincey said of Mikell’s performance. “But again, she’s supposed to play well. We expect her to play well. She’s a senior.”
The Redskins got off to a slow start and it wasn’t until Smith, playing in place of Layla Mincey who got in early foul trouble, scored inside after taking an excellent pass from Mikell with 3:34 left in the first quarter to snap a 7-7 tie.
Bryan County closed the quarter on a 9-3 run and looked like it had things well in hand only to see the plucky Bucs rally to take a 22-21 lead with a little over four minutes left in the half.
During much of this McIntosh run the Redskins had Mikell on the floor with a trio of freshmen and a sophomore as Mincey used his bench extensively.
The Bucs led 29-28 at the intermission and J’Miyah Moore scored to start the second half, but Bryan County cranked it up on both ends of the court as it scored eight straight points to take the lead for good.
Mikell, who made 14 of 20 free throws, scored the last four points of the third quarter and first four of the fourth to extend the Redskins lead to 49-38 and from that point on it was just a matter of holding the Bucs at bay.
“They’re going to play, they’ve got to play,” Mincey said of his first-year players. “We’re still working on building depth. I thought McKenzie went in and played well.
“When Layla got in foul trouble I had to use her. I’ve told her if she practiced hard, she would play in games and she does. She’s going to be a good player for us.”
Moore led McIntosh with 18 points and Trinity Myers added 12. The Bucs were plagued by poor foul shooting as they made only three of 19 attempts. Bryan County was 21-37 at the charity stripe. Liz Harvey and sophomore Terranna Anderson had seven points each for Bryan County.