Heading into the Christmas break and coming off a disheartening 74-57 loss at South Effingham there was no reason to think Bryan County’s boys’ basketball team had a scintilla of a chance of repeating last year’s run to the Elite Eight.
There was one person, however, in the Redskins locker room who believed: Coach Jason Napier knew his team was better than its 3-9 record, 1-4 in Region 3A-DII play, indicated.
With only two starters and a pair of reserves returning from last year’s 22-9 team the veteran coach knew the Redskins were in for a rough start but he also saw a ton of potential.
“When the region tournament rolls around, we’ll probably be a lower seed but no one is going to want to play Bryan County,” Napier said. “I think we’ll be a pretty good basketball team by then.”
The Redskins (12-11, 10-6) are right on schedule following last Friday night’s season-ending 77-63 win over Claxton to clinch in all probability fifth-place in the regular season race.
The region tournament starts next Monday at Metter and if form holds true the Redskins will open against Jenkins County at 5:30 p.m.
Going into the final week of regular season play—everyone plays two games this week with the exception of Screven County which wraps up against Jenkins County on Friday—Savannah High holds down fourth-place. The Blue Jackets, the defending state champion, face Jenkins County and Claxton this week and will be heavily favored to win both games.
A Savannah loss would give Bryan County fourth and a coveted first-round bye. The top two teams get byes into the semi-finals while the third and fourth-place teams get first round byes.
If Savannah indeed wins both games to finish fourth and the Redskins win their opener the two would meet in the second round.
Bryan County has gone 9-2 in region play since that slow start and the victory over Claxton enabled it to finish with seven wins in its last nine games. It beat Savannah twice this season, the only team to do so.
The 13-point margin over the Tigers was somewhat misleading as Bryan County controlled the game from the outset. It led by as many as 20 points late in the first half in a workmanlike win.
The Redskins let the Tigers get back in it in the final three minutes of the half as Claxton went on a 9-2 run and got the first basket of the second half to make it a 38-25 game. Bryan County then regrouped and ran away with it as the Redskins went ahead 56-33 with 1:42 left in the third quarter, when Darius Edwards took a feed from Ger’bravion Collins for an easy basket.
Edwards scored 27 points as he continued on a late-season tear that has seen him score 100 points in his last four games to make his case to be the Region Player of the Year.
“I think he’s the best player in the region and I’m going to push hard for him,” Napier said. “He had 32 at [the] ECI (64-62) win and that’s, I think, the fourth time this season he’s had 30.”
Edwards got excellent support from junior Aaden Frederick who equaled his season and career high with 17 points and sophomore Jordan Carlos had 16.
“Those two were big for us tonight,” Napier said of Frederick and Carlos. . “Aaden is an athlete to talk about. He’s very skilled and Carlos was a question mark at the beginning of the season, but he’s now playing with confidence.”
Edwards and Collins both started last year on a team which had six seniors which meant Rawls and Frederick’s minutes were hard to come by.
“We’ve got guys who are still learning to win,” Napier said. “We’ve only got three seniors and one junior. But when we play clean basketball we’re a pretty good team.”