Winning on the road in basketball is difficult, seemingly more so than in most other sports. And slow starts add to the difficulty.

Bryan County, looking to even its record in road games at 3-3 when it played at Jenkins County Tuesday night in a Region 3A-DII game, survived a slower than slow start last Friday night to earn a 66-51 win at Emanuel County Institute.

The Redskins (8-4, 3-3) looked like anything but the better team for two thirds of the game against the winless Bulldogs (0-7, 0-4) as they picked up their fourth win in five games. It took a 29-point fourth quarter to make a close game look like a runaway.

With the season nearing the midway point Bryan County is locked in a battle with Portal (6-8, 4-2) and Screven County (4-6, 3-3) for third-place behind McIntosh County Academy (10-3, 6-0) and Savannah High (9-2, 5-0). Those two teams played Tuesday night at MCA.

Coach Jason Napier is hoping that strong finish will carry over to this week’s games with Jenkins, at Bulloch Academy on Thursday and against Claxton at home on Friday night. A three-win week would have the Redskins primed for MCA which they will host next Tuesday.

“We had another very slow start in the first half,” said Napier of the game at ECI. “The third quarter was not much better. But it was good to get a road win during the holiday break.”

The Bulldogs stunned Bryan County early as they jumped out to a 17-8 first quarter lead and didn’t give any ground in the second as they maintained a 28-20 halftime lead.

Late in the third quarter Bryan County started chipping into the lead and cut the deficit to 39-37 before exploding in the final eight minutes to win going away.

Elijah Mincey scored 22 points, getting 12 in the fourth quarter, and Mike Smith added 16 including seven in the closing minutes, to lead the way.

Darius Edwards, who excels on defense, also had a big night as he scored 12 points. Chris Winfree had six and Jadon Odum five while Ger’Bravion Collins and Cayron Rawls two each.

“I started making some changes in the lineup and moving people around and putting different people on the floor and it seemed to spark us in the fourth quarter,” Napier said. “Free throws were a huge part of the game. We were 9 of 11 at the free throw line in the fourth quarter.

“We did a real good job in the fourth quarter and turned up our defensive effort which allowed us to get back in the game,” Napier said. “We got some fast break opportunities and that helped us to get to the free throw line.”