For the first time this season Bryan County’s boys found themselves totally overwhelmed as they dropped a disappointing 58-39 game at Liberty County Saturday afternoon.

The loss was the fourth straight for the Redskins (1-5, 0-2 Region 3A-DII) going into Tuesday night’s game with Metter. That was the first of three games for Bryan County this week as it plays at defending state champion Savannah on Friday night and then takes on Statesboro STEAM Saturday before hosting Screven County next Tuesday.

In each of its previous losses the Redskins were in the thick of things until the end and that was the case against Liberty County. The trouble was it was a contest for only one half.

The Panthers (1-3) had dropped their two previous games to Woodville-Tompkins and Beach by a total of three points and when the Redskins faltered in the third quarter it was like a shark circling in bloody waters.

Bryan County was coming off a 58-50 loss at Portal on Friday night despite getting a career high 33 points from Darius Edwards. David Thomas scored 21 points to lead Portal.

The Redskins trailed 37-36 after three quarters only to see Portal pull away as Edwards got little help. The next leading scorers were Gerbravion Collins and Jordan Carlos with five each. Edwards had 12 points in the first half and then scored all of Bryan County’s 14 points in the third quarter.

Portal, a longtime Bryan County nemesis in basketball, led 30-22 at the half before being outscored 14-7 in the third. However, the fourth belonged to the Panthers who atoned for two rare losses to the Redskins last season.

Edwards was one of three players to score nine points against Liberty. Collins, who hit three 3-pointers, and Aaden Frederick joined Edwards at that number.  

“They were stronger, faster, hungrier and a little more athletic,” Coach Jason Napier said of Liberty. “We’re not a very good basketball team right now because we haven’t embraced our new roles and the lack of commitment in the weight room.”

The Redskins returned three seniors off last year’s 22-9 team which advanced to the Elite Eight and Napier is breaking in six freshmen and seven sophomores.

“The biggest thing right now is we’re just not executing offensively,” Napier said. “We’re not comfortable in our new roles and we don’t have a true point guard. That hurts us on the offensive end big time.

“We’ve got real good players,” Napier said. “They’re good kids but they’re struggling.

“We had some really good seniors last year. These kids are talented but they have to fill different roles this year and they’re struggling doing that.”

The Redskins were down 17-9 after the first quarter and then opened the second quarter with eight straight points to grab their only lead of the game.   

Elijah Brown, who led Liberty with 24 points, then scored six straight points to help give his team a 27-21 lead at the break. That was a harbinger of things to come as the Panthers broke it open in the third quarter.

Bryan County got a basket from Cayden Rawls with 5:07 left in the third and then went scoreless for three minutes before Collins scored to break the drought.

While the Redskins were suffering through the scoring drought Liberty was seemingly scoring at will as the lead ballooned to 44-25 and that was all she wrote for the visitors who never got closer than 14 points.