After Bryan County beat South Effingham in its season opener senior point guard Elijah Mincey said he thought the Redskins were a much better team than last year adding, “We can be a top 10 team.”
In the last two weeks the Redskins have gotten a close up look at what a top 10 team looks like as they have played No. 5 McIntosh County Academy, then No. 9 Portal and last Friday night they took on No. 1 Savannah High.
Playing in arguably the strongest Class A-DII region in the state the Redskins lost at MCA, beat Portal and then dropped a 61-47 decision to the Blue Jackets who return four starters from last year’s Final Four team led by all-stater and Region 3A-DII Player of the Year 6-foot-5 senior Maki Joyner.
The Redskins (4-2, 2-2), who rebounded to beat Bulloch Academy 73-48 on Saturday, held their own in the early going. Bryan County led 12-6 after the first quarter but then the Blue Jackets began to assert themselves as they opened the second quarter on an 11-0 run.
Despite that Blue Jackets surge the Redskins rallied and clawed their way back to a 23-21 deficit when fast improving Mike Smith got a steal and scored on a reverse layup with 1:16 left before halftime.
Savannah coach George Brown called a quick time out to settle his team down and it responded by closing the half on a 7-0 spurt. With three minutes left in the third quarter the Blue Jackets had pushed the lead to 41-24 and for all practical purposes it was over.
To its credit Bryan County refused to fold and managed to get to within nine points, 45-36, on a 3-pointer by Ger’bravion Collins to start the fourth quarter but Savannah’s advantage on the boards proved to be the difference.
“Defensively we did a great job,” Coach Jason Napier said. “We played well enough to win. We did a great job defensively with those guys.
“The difference in the game was they hit some shots, got some offensive rebounds on missed shots that they put back,” Napier said. “We didn’t get those. We just didn’t have enough size.
“We got some good looks but didn’t have enough shots to fall and when we missed it was one and done on the offensive end. That was the difference in the game. That’s a good team. They made some shots and good teams are going to make shots.”
Zyaire Smart had 26 points to lead Savannah and Joyner added 17. Last Tuesday the Blue Jackets beat Screven County, 99-68. Point guard Jermontae Brown had 35 points with Joyner getting 21. Brown had five against the Redskins.
Collins scored 17 to lead Bryan County while Elijah Mincey had 13 points.
In the win over Bulloch Academy Smith had a career high 27 points, Darius Edwards scored 15 and Jayden Odum 11.
“We played well,” Napier said. “Mike really stepped up and played well in all phases. G’baby and Darius are playing very good defense and contributing with some scoring as well. Jayden Odum is playing great defense, too, and Aaden Frederick is giving us some good minutes off the bench.”
The Redskins posted a 59-51 win at Metter on Tuesday with Mincey scoring 19 and Smith 11. Odum had eight while Collins and Edwards had seven each.