STATESBORO - The Bulloch Academy Gators dominated Tuesday night with both the girls and boys varsity teams pulling out a win against the Southeast Bulloch Yellow Jackets. The girls varsity won, 50-17, and the boys varsity won 58-57.
The girls varsity game was dominated fully by the Lady Gators the entire time. The Yellow Jackets struggled with the fundamentals, and it showed when they had multiple 10 second calls because they couldn’t get across half court.
The Lady Gators played well in the first three quarters of the matchup, but seemed to get a little laxed in the fourth only scoring 2 points the whole quarter. Both teams played aggressive and scrappy.
Bulloch Academy varsity head coach, Chandler Dennard, rotated out full teams during this match up. He wanted to make sure that his younger players were getting some game time going into games after the holidays because that’s when region conference play begins.
Leading scorers for the Lady Gators were freshman Adylee Davis with 10 points. Freshman Emme Powell and senior Ashantay Noble both added seven points of their own to the score as well. Some other scorers were Rylie Ann Claxton, Anderson Roach, Kaley Cardell, Zariah Major, Brylie Ray, Maralyne Belcher and Emery Lynn Davis.
Leading scorers for the Lady Yellow Jackets were senior Monica Lanier with seven points on the night and followed behind her was senior Korine Talkington with six points to add to the score. Some others who added to the scoreboard for SEB were sophomore Kayla Adams and K. Davis who both added two points each to the scoreboard too.
The boys varsity game was a tough one to watch. The Gators outlasted the Yellow Jackets to the end in a nail biter match up.
The Yellow Jackets got off to a great start. They were up 16-10 early in the second, but seemed to lose momentum and the Gators were able to tie it up going into halftime 28-28.
Coming out the gate swinging, Bulloch Academy drew first blood in the second half to go up 30-28. The Gators outscored the Yellow Jackets 18 to 14 to put them up 46-42 going into the fourth.
In the fourth, Southeast Bulloch held the Gators and was able to run up the score 55-46 with almost two minutes left to play. In those last two minutes, the Gators ran wild. The went on a 12-2 run with junior guard, Jackson Sheppard, scoring the Gators last nine points with a dagger three to solidify the win with 15 seconds left in the game. The Yellow Jackets couldn’t put the ball in the basket after two attempts as the time wound down.
Bulloch Academy varsity head coach, Zachary Brackett, knows that his team struggled offensively in the first quarter, but they rebounded well and held their own defensively for the rest of the game.
“They just did a great job. I stressed, since we had a bad loss Friday, playing together, competing together, getting better every play, every possession, but it was a great team effort,” Brackett said.
The leading scorers of the game for the Gators were junior Jackson Sheppard, with 19 points. Right behind him was junior Shemar Jenkins with 14 points of his own. Other players that contributed to the win were Ben Aaron, Brennan Perossa, Will Ellis, Keonte Mayner and JB Roach.
The leading scorer for the Yellow Jackets was senior Brandon Wells with 17 points on the night. Followed behind him was Zachery Wells and Brandon O’dowd who added nine points each to the scoreboard. Other honorable mentions were Christian Linen, Trey Jones, Kyon Taylor, Aedan Peterson and Ash Collins.
UP NEXT:
Both teams will be back in action after the Christmas Holiday. The Southeast Bulloch girls will play on January 2, 2024 at Swainsboro High School and the boys will play Statesboro on December 28, 2023 at Statesboro High School for their annual Gentleman's Classic Tournament. Both Bulloch Academy varsity teams will be at Tattnall Square Academy in Macon, GA on December 27, 2023. The girls will begin at 6:00 p.m. and the boys at 7:30 p.m.
