Bryan County’s girls basketball team got a taste of playoff atmosphere basketball and while it didn’t win it didn’t wilt, either.
The No. 3-ranked Redskins, playing at an unusual early morning start time of 10 a.m. which meant boarding a school bus two hours earlier, dropped a 52-50 nailbiter to Telfair County Saturday morning.
It was the opening game of the third day of the Paul Thigpen Christmas Classic which featured 21 games between 24 boys and girls teams at Vidalia High School. Bryan County’s boys played Vidalia at 8:30 p.m. in the final game of the annual event.
“It was a good game, a lot of back-and-forth,” Coach Mario Mincey said. “We had chances to win. It all came down to the last two minutes of the fourth quarter.”
The Trojans (7-1) entered the non-region game ranked No. 1 in the state by MaxPreps in Class A-DII and the Redskins (10-2) held down the No. 3 spot.
In a tightly officiated game between two teams which like to play pressure defense Telfair County won it at the foul line as it shot 18 free throws in the fourth quarter, making 12.
“We held them without a field goal,” Mincey said. “I can’t fault our defense. All of their points were on free throws.”
For the game the Trojans shot 33 free throws and the Redskins 26 including 10 in the fourth quarter.
Jasmine Mikell led the Redskins in scoring with 19 points and Ashanti Brown had 15 as they continued to give Bryan County a solid outside-inside game. Liz Harvey added nine, Layla Mincey had five and Nevaeh Lovett two.
“I give credit to Telfair, they’re a good team,” Mincey said. “This was the kind of game and the kind of team I wanted to play during the Christmas break.
“I wanted to play a good team before we get back into region play,” Mincey said. “So many times you play a game during the break that you win easily and don’t really get anything out of it.
“This was like a playoff game. We’ve played some solid competition and some solid games the last two weeks. I was not pleased with our first quarter against Telfair but after that I loved the effort.”
Bryan County currently shares first-place in Region 3A-DII with Screven County as both are 4-1 in region play with Metter (3-1) and Emanuel County Institute (2-1) in the mix. The Redskins’ next three games are on the road as they play at ECI on Jan. 3 followed by games at Jenkins County and Bulloch Academy, two teams which are currently winless on the season.
The Redskins’ next home game is Jan. 10 when they face Claxton.
Telfair jumped out to a 15-9 start against the sluggish Redskins who rebounded to take a 29-27 lead at the half and carried a 43-40 advantage into the fourth quarter only to see the Trojans win it at the foul line.