STATESBORO – The Statesboro Blue Devils hosted the Swainsboro Tigers Saturday night at home. Both varsity teams defeated Swainsboro with the girls winning 60-56, and the boys winning 55-43
The girls had a tough matchup. Both teams struggled with staying out of foul trouble which resulted in both teams having multiple free throws throughout the game. Statesboro struggled in the first half only shooting 3-16 from the line. Swainsboro shot 8-12 in the first half. In the second half, Statesboro shot 13-21 from the line and Swainsboro went 7-16 in the second half.
With a couple of Statesboro’s starters in foul trouble, the Blue Devils struggled with taking care of the ball in the third which had them down by almost 20 points coming into the fourth. The Blue Devils were able to fight back in the fourth to have a comeback win.
Leading scorers for the Lady Blue Devils were senior Alyssa Staten with 22 points. That was followed by senior Reya Johnson with 17 of her own. Gerziya Haggray contributed 12 points, Demia Hartwell added six points, MiKiyah Strickland with two points and Shanaria White with one point.
In the boys matchup, Statesboro came out to a fast start putting 10 points in between them and the Tigers quickly. By the half, the score was 29-20 with the Blue Devils up. The Blue Devils led the entire matchup although the Tigers tried hard to fight back to the end.
Leading scorers for the Blue Devils were senior Raylin Grant with 22 points. Following him was junior DJ Brown with 21 points, Kam Mikell with five points, Muhammad Shareef with four points, AK Watkins and Camdyn Wilkerson with two points and Devin Mikell with one point.
Honorable mention for the Blue Devils on the night was senior center, Alyssa Staten, who was celebrated for scoring her 1,000th point and securing her 1,000th rebound in the past week. Staten also holds the school record for most rebounds in a game for the boys or girls.
The Blue Devils will be back in action on Tuesday, January 9, as they travel to Greenbrier. The girls will play at 6 p.m. and the boys will play at 7:30 p.m.
