One game does not make a season, but one game can turn a season around.

Bryan County coach Jason Napier is hoping that is the case after watching his team rally from a 15-point second half deficit to post a 67-62 Region 3A-DII win over Emanuel County Institute last Friday night.

The win, fueled by Darius Edwards’ 30 points, snapped a three-game losing streak for the Redskins (4-9, 3-4) who will wrap up the first half of region play with games against Jenkins County (0-6, 0-3) on Tuesday and at Claxton (2-6, 1-2) on Friday before starting the second go-around next Tuesday at McIntosh County Academy (6-6, 4-0).

It was Bryan County’s first game in 13 days and the effects of the extended layoff showed, Napier said.  

“They listened. It was simple as that,” said Napier of his team’s double-digit comeback. “We had not had a very good week. We had a lot of guys not coming to practice over the holidays and it showed.

“We had a discussion at halftime and we came out and started playing defense,” Napier said. “I changed the defense up a little bit and that started us getting some stops and it saved our legs a little bit.

“To be honest it took nearly three quarters to knock the rust off which is what this week of practice was meant to be. But in order to knock the rust off you have to come to practice. So that’s what happened.”

The Redskins quickly fell behind 10-2 in the opening minutes and spent the rest of the night chasing the Bulldogs (0-8, 0-5) who looked and played like anything but a winless team.

Trailing 17-11 after the initial quarter, the Redskins got the lead for the first time, 21-19, when Gerbravion Collins, who had 14 points, and Edwards hit back-to-back 3-pointers. The Bulldogs refused to fold, however, and went on a 15-4 run over the last four minutes for a 36-25 lead at the break.

It was starting to look bleak when Deon Bethea, who had 15 points, scored the first four of the third quarter to give the Bulldogs a 40-25 lead.

ECI was still up by nine, 46-37, with 2:55 left in the third but the Redskins scored the next eight points, to get within one with 1:09 on the clock when Cayden Rawls hit a short jumper from the left baseline.

Rawls, who finished with 12 points, had a chance to put his team in front with 12 seconds to play when he was fouled on a 3-point attempt. However, the senior missed all three attempts and Bethea gave his team some cushion seven seconds later when he made three free throws to move the lead back to four points.

“That was a big swing,” Napier said. “He’s (Rawls) one of our better shooters. We work on it and these guys easily make six or seven in a row in practice. Free throw shooting is mental.”

The Redskins wound up making only 11 of 27 free throw attempts. Edwards, who was 16-for-16 in an earlier game against Screven County, was 10-15. ECI made 16 of 25 free throws.

Bryan County finally took the lead for good when Collins drove to the basket and made a beautiful twisting reverse layup for a 58-57 advantage. Following a steal Napier called time with 1:58 on the clock and set up a play which the Redskins executed perfectly as Rawls took a feed from Collins for an easy bucket inside.

That made it 62-57 with a minute to play and the Redskins held on despite missing three of four free throws in the final 24 seconds.