Friday night, the Portal Panthers defeated the Southeast Bulloch Yellow Jackets in a Bulloch County Showdown doubleheader. The Portal girls dominated in a 72-12 win and the Portal boys won in a 72-63 face-off to move to 2-0 on the season so far.
Portal girls dominated the entire game leading SEB 31-4 at the half, and not letting up in the second half. Head coach Nicole Newton was happy with the win, but knows that there are some things her team needs to work on to get better prepared for their next game.
Against SEB, the Lady Panthers struggled with turnovers and making their free throws throughout, and moving the ball around. They tightened up a lot more in the second half which allowed them to double their half time lead plus 10 by the end of the contest.
“In the second-half, we started looking for our teammates better and looking down low and getting some buckets on the inside.”
The Lady Panthers were led in scoring by Freshmen G, London Blackmon, with 23 points, followed up by Senior PG, Glenn Lowe, with 14 of her own.
The boys matchup looked a little different with SEB coming out with an early 6-0 lead early in the first. The game was so fast paced, that if you blinked, you were liable to miss something.
Portal quickly answered with a quick three made by Freshman guard David Thomas, and 2 steals which allowed Joe Thomas and Amir Jackson to get two back to back dunks to tie up the matchup.
There were a lot of quick possession changes between both teams and some starters for Portal ended up in foul trouble early. Seeming evenly matched, the Panthers only led by 1 at the end of the first.
“You can tell it was the second game,” said head coach Jeff Brannen. “We got to play better. We got to close teams out. We can’t let teams come back, but it’s going to be a work in progress.”
Friday Night’s game was only the second game for the Panthers, but with so many athletes on the team and seniors: Elijah Coleman, Joseph Thomas, Marion Tremble and Amir Jackson leading the way. The Panthers are bound to go far this season.
The boys were led by brothers, David Thomas (Freshmen PG/SG) and Joseph Thomas (Senior PG/SG) with David having 21 points on the night, and Joseph adding 19, followed by Senior SF, Mairon Tremble, with 15 points of his own.
UP NEXT:
Portal will host Effingham County on Saturday with the girls tipping off at 2:30 and the boys following directly behind them. Southeast Bulloch will host South Effingham Saturday, December 2, at 6:00 p.m. followed by the boys at 7:30 p.m.
The next “county showdown,” will be next Tuesday, December 5, 2023 as the Portal Panthers take on Statesboro High School at Georgia Southern Field House at 6:00 girls varsity tip-off.