Basketball games are not played on an 8.5 X 11 sheet of paper. They are played on a court measured 84 X 50 ---94 X 50 in college and the NBA—with the baskets hung 10 feet high.
So, don’t look for Coach Jason Napier and his Bryan County (19-8) to be taking Montgomery County (8-21) lightly in their opening round game of the Class A-DII state playoffs. The two will meet Wednesday night at Montgomery County with the winner taking on the Central Talbotton (15-13) at Mt. Zion (19-8) game on Saturday at a site and time to be determined.
If the Redskins were tempted to look at the Eagles’ subpar record and start thinking about their second-round opponent those thoughts were dampened by the fact they are playing without leading scorer Elijah Mincey.
Mincey, who suffered a dislocated patella in football, reinjured that same knee in the third quarter of the final regular season game against Savannah, a 51-45 loss, and is finished for the year.
“He’ll have surgery in April,” said Napier, who is in his year as the Redskins coach. “We’ve had to make some changes but the kids have learned they can play without Elijah. We’re playing some pretty good defense.
“We lost to McIntosh by one (35-34) without him and without Mike Smith scoring a point,” Napier said. “We had lost to them by 65 points (90-25) earlier in the year and Elijah had missed that game, too.”
Mincey, a senior point guard, has led the Redskins in scoring for four straight years and Smith is their second leading scorer this season so losing to the Buccaneers by one, while disappointing, has Napier encouraged by his team’s chances going into the playoffs.
Five of Bryan County’s losses have come at the hands of Savannah and McIntosh who are ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the state, respectively.
The Redskins are in the state playoff field for a school record fourth straight year. They previously had made the playoffs in the 1991-1993 and 2014-2016 seasons. And they will be looking to reach the second round for the first time since 1998 when Michael Butler was coach.
Bryan County was playing on the road as a No. 3 seed out of Region 3 after beating Jenkins County, 51-44, last Friday in the consolation game of the region tournament. The Redskins had advanced to the region semis by beating Portal, 58-52, in overtime in the quarterfinals.
“We haven’t seen them but I don’t care,” Napier said of Montgomery County. “We’re going to build on [the fact] that we’re playing well. You can’t be looking at their record because they’ve gotten hot at the right time of the year and finished second in their region.
“I’m just focusing on us. It’s easier to concentrate on us and how to fix us than on unknown variables. I do know they’re a streaky team that shoots a lot of threes. They’ve shot themselves out of some games but they’ve also gotten on a streak and upset some teams.”
As a No. 3 seed, the only possibility of the Redskins playing a home playoff game would be for them to get past the Eagles and for Central Talbotton, a No. 4 seed, upset Mt. Zion.
Bryan County closed the season on a strong note, winning nine of its last 11 games. It lost only to Savannah and MCA in that stretch. It shares three common opponents with the Eagles.
Montgomery County lost twice to Metter and once to Claxton and beat Wheeler County twice. Bryan County beat Metter and Claxton two times each and also beat Wheeler County.
“You can’t think about anything like that,” Napier said of the common opponent angle. “With Elijah out we were tied with Savannah with two minutes to play and against McIntosh we were down one and had the ball with 11 seconds to play. We know we can play with the best teams in the state.”