HINESVILLE – The Statesboro Blue Devils traveled to Hinesville Tuesday night to take on the Bradwell Institute Tigers. Both varsity teams fell short with the girls losing 45-36, and the boys falling 57-49.
The Girls Never Fully Settled In
In the varsity girls matchup, Statesboro struggled to get loose. The girls were hot in the first half shooting well and staying aggressive on the ball.
Defensively they were able to shut down the Tigers which opened up room for them to force turnovers and that put them on top going into the half 22-14.
In the second half of the matchup, Statesboro let off the gas pedal. They allowed the Tigers to go on a 16-5 run to lead into the fourth.
In the fourth quarter, the Blue Devils had more than 10 turnovers and couldn’t seem to buy a free throw going 6-22 at the free throw line throughout the entire game.
Head coach, Marty Holder, kept it short, sweet and to the point when talking about how his team played.
"We gotta go back to the drawing board man,” Holder said. “I mean we gotta make layups and we gotta hit free throws and that’s with anybody. That’s gone to help you win a basketball game. We didn’t do that tonight and that’s why Bradwell was the better team tonight.
Leading scorers for the Lady Blue Devils were senior Alyssa Staten, with 12 points, followed by senior Reya Johnson with 10 points. Shanaria White contributed five points, Lindsay Johnson contributed four points, Gerziya Haggray and Demia Hartwell with two points and Kennedy Myers with one point.
The Boys Didn’t Stand a Chance
In the boys matchup, Statesboro never got the chance to get started. The Tigers came out the gate swinging and jumped out to a 14-2 lead in the first few minutes of the first quarter of the game. It took almost 30 minutes to end the first quarter alone and by the end of the half, the Tigers were leading 28-15.
The Blue Devils tried to chip away at the Tigers lead slowly in the third quarter coming within nine points, but because of missed shots and controversial calls made by referees, Statesboro never got the chance to contend fully.
Head coach, Keith LeGree, had much to say about how his team performed in this game.
“We didn’t have execution in this game,” LeGree said. “Not running our plays, going one on one, those are sucker punch shots. You gotta make this team work, you gotta move your ball. I thought we played decent half court defense, but when it came down to the offensive side, we didn’t have nobody that would lead us.”
Leading scorers for the Blue Devils were senior Raylin Grant, with 19 points, followed by junior, Camdyn Wilkerson with 14 points. Kam Mikell and DJ Brown contributed six points and Devin Mikell and Jordan Grant both added two points to the scoreboard.
With this loss, this puts the Bradwell Institute Tigers as the unquestionable number one seed for the Class 5A Region 1 as we dive into the depth of region play.
Up Next
The Blue Devils will be back in action on Saturday, January 20, 2024 as they travel to Waycross to take on Ware County for another big region matchup of the week. The varsity girls game will begin 5 p.m. and the boys will follow immediately after at 6:30 p.m. Tickets will be available on the GoFan website around 8 a.m. the morning before.
