STATESBORO – Last week, Statesboro hosted its annual Gentleman’s Classic Tournament Wednesday, December 27 through Friday, December 29, 2023. The Blue Devils hosted multiple teams such as Bryan County, Southeast Bulloch, Portal, Swainsboro, Glenn Hills and Bible Baptist.
On Wednesday, Statesboro took on Bryan County. The Blue Devils defeated the Redskins 74-33 opening night. In this matchup, Statesboro dominated the entire game. They led by 15 at the half and had doubled that plus some more by the end of the game.
Leading scorers for the Blue Devils on Wednesday night were senior point guard, Raylin Grant with 17 points followed by junior forward, Camdyn Wilkerson with 15 points of his own. This win was a full team effort with everyone pitching in. Kam Mikell added nine points to the scoreboard with DJ Brown adding eight, Ja’caiden Cone adding seven, Devin Mikell and Marcus Hartwell adding four, Jordan Grant and A’kryon Watkins with three and Kyan Mccollum and Mike Goodman with two points on the night.
On Thursday night, the Blue Devils defeated the Yellow Jackets in a 63-60 close matchup. This being the second night for the Blue Devils, this wasn’t their strongest defensive performance. Statesboro struggled with rebounding which allowed Southeast Bulloch to get second chance shots which they were able to capitalize on.
Leading scorers for the Blue Devils were senior Raylin Grant with 20 points. That was followed by Kam Mikell with nine points, Ja’caiden Cone and Camdyn Wilkerson with eight points, A’kryon Watkins with seven points, Devin Mikell with six points, DJ Brown with two and Marcus Hartwell adding one point to the scoreboard.
The leading scorers for the Yellow Jackets were senior Zachery Wells with 32 points followed by senior Trey Jones with 16 points of his own. A few others also added to the scoreboard with Brandon O’dowd and Christian Linen adding five points and Kyon Taylor adding two as well.
Friday night was the biggest game for the Blue Devils for the entire tournament. It was a rematch between the Statesboro Blue Devils against the Portal Panthers which resulted in a 59-56 nail biting loss for Statesboro. In the first half of the matchup, the Blue Devils went into halftime up by 14. In the second half of the game, the Panthers were able to fight back by out rebounding the Blue Devils and forcing second chance shots which they were able to convert.
The Panthers drew out a lot of fouls from the Blue Devil bench in the second half of the game which made for some easy baskets to keep them within striking distance til they were up late in the fourth. With the game tied 56-56 with 0.8 seconds left in the game, a controversial foul call allowed the Panthers to have a chance to shoot two free throws which put them up 58-56. While shooting, a referee gave Statesboro's head coach, Keith Legree, a technical foul which gave the Panthers two more free throws. They made the first and missed the second which put them up 59-56 with possession of the basketball to finish out the game.
Leading scorers for the Blue Devils in this game were sophomore Ja’caiden Cone with a breakout 20 points on the night. That performance was followed by senior Raylin Grant with 14 points. Senior Kam Mikell broke double digits in the tournament with 10 points. That was followed by DJ Brown with seven points, Kyan Mccollum and Devin Mikell with three points and Camdyn Wilkerson with two points on the night.
Leading scorers for the Panther in the game were senior center, Amir Jackson with 23 points. Behind him were seniors Joseph Thomas with 12 points, Marion Tremble adding 10 points to the fold, Elijah Coleman with nine points and KJ Hunter and David Thomas with two points each.
Overall the Blue Devils were winners of the tournament. Over the three nights the Blue Devils went 2-1. Statesboro head coach Keith LeGree was proud of his team overall and learned a lot about what his team is capable of going into this second half of the season with region play starting up. The Blue Devils will be back in action Friday, January 5, 2024 as they take on Coffee County to kickoff region play.
