An up-and-down basketball season for Bryan County came to a heartbreaking end Tuesday night as the mistake-prone Redskins lost to Metter, 61-59, in the quarterfinals of the Region 3A-DII tournament.
In a game which saw Bryan County lead by as many as seven points and trail by no more than four the Redskins, who reached the Elite Eight last year, saw their chance of reaching the state playoffs for a second straight year fade in the closing minutes against the Tigers who had the advantage of playing on their home floor.
The game was a microcosm of the Redskins’ season which saw them go 5-5 in games decided by eight points or less.
Bryan County had four players in double figures led by Aaden Frederick with 16 points. He was backed up by seniors Gerbravion Collins and Cayden Rawls with 15 each and Darius Edwards with 12.
The Redskins (13-11) had won their opening round game against Jenkins County, 64-47, on Monday night to set up the game with Metter (18-7) which had beaten them twice during the regular season by 11 and 12 points.
Collins and Edwards had 18 each against Jenkins County and Frederick, who had a strong second half of the season, added 14. Frederick is the lone junior on the team.
“Obviously, this did not go well,” said second-year coach Jason Napier. “This was a perfect example tonight of details matter.
“We’ve talked about it and talked about it but at the end of the day we made one or two more mistakes,” Napier said. “We’ve got good players, really good kids but this is not the NBA where you get a series.
“In high school basketball when you get to this point the stakes are magnified and multiplied,” Napier said. “There was a little stretch there, and I use this phrase, you have to play with emotion but you can’t play emotionally.
“That’s a fine line to be able to play with emotion but not lose your composure. There were times where we did that, we got emotional, we rushed things and that led to mistakes.”
With four minutes remaining the Redskins were up 52-47 but nothing seemingly went right the rest of the way.
In that closing stretch Bryan County was hit with three charging calls by officials who were not having their best night and then trailing by one point, 53-52 with 2:21 to play, came down and turned the ball over on back-to-back possessions.
Despite the failure to get off a shot on either trip down the floor thanks to a steal and layup by Edwards, the Redskins had their final lead, 54-53, with 1:54 to go.
Metter’s Obadiah Jones then put in the dagger and gave it a twist as he made a pair of free throws and 20 seconds later got a one-and when he picked off an errant pass, drove for a layup and was fouled. That gave the Tigers a four-point, their largest since leading 14-10 in the first quarter.
Collins made one of two free throws and Frederick scored with 35 seconds left to make it a one-point game. He then gave the Redskins a chance to go ahead when he got a steal seconds later but again Bryan County turned it over.
The Tigers’ Lincoln Shuman made one of two free throws with 17 seconds to play but the Redskins, looking to tie it, could not get off a shot.
Bryan County had one last chance when it had the ball out of bounds under its own basket with two seconds left but couldn’t execute.
“We had a chance to win if we don’t turn the ball over,” Napier said. “I felt with two seconds left we were going to tie it up. We had scored in the first half on the same play.”
BRYAN COUNTY 18 11 15 15 – 59
METTER 16 12 17 16 – 61
BRYAN COUNTY (59): Gerbravion Collins 15, Darius Edwards 12, Cayden Rawls 15, Aaden Frederick 16, Carlos 1. 3-pointers: Collins 4, Rawls 1. FTs: 14-20. Record 13-12.
METTER (61): Obadiah Jones 16, Dickerson 8, Kourtnee Whitfield 14, Scott 1, Williams 8, C. Shuman 3, Lincoln Shuman 10, Young 1. 3-pointers: Whitfield 4, L. Shuman 1. Record: 18-7.