The new girl on the block has wasted no time in making her presence felt much to Coach Mario Mincey’s delight. Junior forward Kayley Wedlow poured in 35 points to lead a furious Bryan County fourth quarter rally Tuesday night as the Redskins ran past Claxton, 63-49, in a Region 3A-D1 game.
It was the second straight game in which Wedlow, who transferred from Statesboro High School, hit the 30-point park. She had 30 last Saturday in a win over Memorial Day School. “She can play,” Mincey said. “She’s averaging 22-23 points a game. Her family moved here in May so she was with us all summer.”
Claxton (6-4, 3-2) entered the game ranked No. 10 in the state in the AJC rankings and looked every bit the part as it played the Redskins (6-2, 3-1) to a standstill for three quarters.
In the boys game Coach Brent Anderson’s team (2-7, 2-2) indicated it was putting a slow start in the rear view mirror as it cruised to a 54-29 win over the Tigers (2-8, 0-4).
Junior forward Justin Beck came off the bench to lead the Redskins in scoring with 11 points as 11 players broke into the scoring column. Senior point guard Jamal Campbell added nine, sophomore Elijah Mincey had four as did junior Tanner Ennis.
Bryan County started slow, leading 12-6 after the first quarter, and was never able to pull away. However, Beck ended the first half by hitting a jump shot at the buzzer for a 20-10 lead and that seemed to light a fire under his team.
The Redskins outscored the visitors 20-9 in the third quarter and the rout was on as Anderson substituted liberally throughout the game.
A back-and-forth game
The girls game was a back-and-forth affair until the final minute of the third quarter.
Claxton was up 38-37 when Wedlow hit a basket to give Bryan County the lead for good. She dropped in a free throw 30 seconds later. With 7.3 seconds on the clock sophomore Katelyn King made a pair of foul shots for a 42-39 lead going into the fourth quarter.
The Redskins opened the final eight minutes on an 11-2 lead and built the lead to 61-44 with three minutes left to turn a close game into a runaway.
“Our defense created our offense,” Mincey said of the fourth quarter blitz which featured several easy baskets off the fast break. “I told them after the game we don’t celebrate tonight.
“Some teams would be celebrating beating the No. 10 team in the state but this is just round one. We see them again at their place and again in the region tournament in February. We’re only focused on February.”
Ashanti Brown added 13 points for the Redskins and clogged up the middle defensively. Wedlow, who averaged 8.7 points per game last year for a 22-6 Statesboro team, had 12 points in the decisive fourth quarter but was consistent throughout as she scored seven, eight and eight points in the first three.
Bryan County’s boys, for a Class A-D1 school, has played a demanding non-region schedule, which has led to, in Anderson’s eyes, a deceptive record.
“We’re about where I figured we would be,” Anderson said. “We’re starting to come together as a group now. We’re starting to find out more about ourselves.
“We’re concentrating now on our region games. We had to deal with Woodville-Tompkins and Savannah High in our first two region games so it was not a great start. But we played them both tight.”
The Redskins dropped a 66-51 decision to Woodville which was a Class AA Final Four team last year and is currently ranked No. 4 in the state. The Wolverines got an early 10-point lead and maintained it.
Savannah High, which dropped down from Class AAA, got out with a 49-44 win that was sealed until the final minute.