The Region 3A-DII regular season girls’ basketball race hasn’t reached the halfway mark but it has become clear who the dominant teams are: Bryan County, Screven County and Metter.
All three are tied with 5-1 region records—teams play 16 region games---going into Tuesday night and all were favored to win. Bryan County (11-2, 5-1) played at winless Jenkins County (0-13, 0-6) and will host Claxton at 6 p.m. Friday following a Thursday night game at Bulloch Academy.
While the Redskins, currently ranked No. 2 in the state in Class A-DII by the AJC, were squaring off against the War Eagles the Tigers (7-3, 5-1) were at Portal while No. 8 Screven (8-3, 5-1) played at Claxton. It would be a major upset if any of the three lost, especially Bryan County as Jenkins, a playoff team a year ago, is suffering through a miserable season having failed to score at least 10 points in two games.
The three have taken turns beating one another: Bryan County lost at Metter with the Tigers making an incredible 17 3-pointers and won at Screven. The Gamecocks in turn beat the Tigers. The Redskins host Metter on Jan. 21 and Screven a week later.
Coach Mario Mincey’s team romped to a 57-31 win last Friday night at Emanuel County Institute as junior point guard Jasmine Mikell and senior post player Ashanti Brown combined to outscore the Bulldogs.
Mikell, who has started every game of her high school career, has used the last half dozen games to establish herself as one of the top players in the region. She poured in 25 points while coming up with four steals and three assists.
Brown, the only player in Bryan County history to surpass both 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds, had another double-double as she scored 14 points and pulled down 10 rebounds with two steals. Nevaeh Lovett chipped in with eight points, three rebounds and a pair of steals.
Liz Harvey, one of the Redskins’ steadiest players, continued to excel on defense while grabbing seven rebounds along with five points and two steals. Freshman guard Azaiah Brewton added four points and senior forward Katelyn King had three rebounds and one point.
“It was good to pick up a region win on the road,” Mincey said. “We got a chance to play a lot of girls in different positions which will help us going forward.”
Of the Redskins’ victories to date nine have come by double figures which has allowed the veteran coach to give his bench players plenty of playing time in an effort to develop depth on a team which has only four seniors: Brown, King, Lovett and Soniya Whitaker who starts at center.