It was another basketball filled weekend for the Redskins this past Friday and Saturday. They played host to a Region 3-A foe Calvary Cavaliers on Friday night to get the weekend action started. The hometown faithful in attendance didn’t have much to cheer about on this night as the girls lost the varsity opener 74-18, and the boys followed with an 88-54 loss.
Back in January, the Bryan County boys hooked up with Calvary in what ended up being a last second nail biting win for the Cavaliers with a 78-77 score. The first quarter of Friday night’s game was deja vu as these two teams raced up and down the court offensively and played full-court press defensively. It was tit for tat scoring wise through most of the first quarter until Calvary hit several timely three-pointers to advance 21-15.
This non-stop pace continued most of the first half, but Calvary started taking advantage of Bryan County’s inconsistent shooting and capitalized on their own aggressiverebounding to find themselves scoring some easy baskets as they quickly pushed the ball up court. The Cavaliers soon found themselves sitting in the locker room at halftime with a hefty 52-21 lead.
As the second half began, Bryan County tried to get their game on track, but continued to struggle to find any offensive rhythm or defensive consistency. Meanwhile, Calvary continued to open their lead due to some very consistent shooting dominating rebounding, both led by powerhouse Cody Padgett who poured in 23 points and yanked down 12 rebounds to lead the Cavaliers to a solid 88-54 victory. For the Skins, Thurman Gaines had the hottest hand with 15 points while Willie Deloach and Winston Johnson contributed 10 points each.
Hoping for better results on Saturday, the Redskins headed to Savannah for another region showdown with another potent foe - the Savannah Country Day Hornets.
With a 7-3 region record, the SCD young men held Bryan County to only 31 points as Bradley Jones led the Hornets offensively and defensively by popping in 17 points and pulling down an impressive 18 rebounds as SCD cruised to a 66-31 victory. Bryan County was able to hang within 8 points of the Hornets going into halftime, but that was the closest they got this night. Bryan County’s highest scorers were Thurman Gaines and Willie Deloach with 8 points each.
The Bryan County Lady Skins, still seeking their first win, probably didn’t feel much comfort going into Friday’s contest as they faced a Lady Cavs team that was riding a 7 game winning streak and has posted an 18-3 overall record. Doing nothing to tarnish their record, the Lady Cavs got out to a fast start and never looked back to basically shut down Bryan County to take a 29-4 first quarter lead.
This David versus Goliath struggle continued for three more quarters. Bryan County’s fundamental woes continued and the young Lady Skins, determined and battling as always, watched a 49-9 deficit turn into a 74-18 rout at the hands of a very talented Calvary squad. Leading the way for the Lady Cavs with 18 points was Katie Covington. Shantel Jones and Whitney Fields led Bryan County with 4 points apiece.
On Saturday, it was the Lady Skins versus the tough Lady Hornets of Savannah Country Day.
With an impressive 20-2 record, the Lady Hornets came out buzzing both offensively and defensively and maintained their sting most of the evening as they picked up their 21st win and kept their region record unblemished. Leading the Hornets to victory was Katie Dotson who swished in 20 points,while scoring her 1000th point of her basketball career at SCD. The Hornets came away with a 56-21 victory. Leading in scoring for Bryan County was Mitzi Cross (7points) followed closely by Samantha Howard (6 points).
Bryan County will travel to Claxton on Friday night before being back home and hosting Metter in a Saturday night contest. These are the last two regular season games of the season before the region tournament.