The Long County Blue Tide boys basketball team is back in the Sweet Sixteen for the third time in four years after falling in the first round during the 2022 state playoffs. They hosted the Salem Seminoles and, despite nearly 50 fouls called in the game, the Tide rolled on to an 82-71 victory.

The first quarter started off fast paced and high scoring, partially due to 13 combined fouls being called. Roderick Randall, who broke the Tide’s 0-of-5 streak from 3-point range, paced the Tide with his early five points.

With a 17-12 lead going into the second quarter, the Tide opened up on a 9-0 run, paced by Cam’Ron Rosa’s six points, to take a 26-12 lead at 5:20.

Salem answered the Tide’s opening run with a 10-4 run of their own as they cut the Tide’s lead to single digits at the 3:00 mark of the half. The Tide built another double-digit lead to go up 35-23 at the break.

The Seminoles worked their way back into the game again as they opened the third quarter on an 8-2 run to make the score 37-31 with 4:45 left in the quarter. This is where things took a huge turn for the Tide.

Senior CJ Glenn hit two big 3s, followed up by freshman Zyi Holt’s second 3 of the game. This pushed the Tide’s lead to 46-31, as the Tide led 56-41 going into the final quarter.

With a 15-point led, the Tide were pretty comfortable to cruise, but 25 total fouls called in the fourth slowed the game down. The Tide led by as much as 22 points in the fourth before the Seminoles went on a 9-0 run to make the score 71-58 with 2:16 left.

Glenn, who scored 11 of his 21 points in the quarter, connected on a tough three-point play to push the Tide’s lead back up to 74-58 with 2:10 left.

The last two minutes featured 21 points between the two teams, including a huge alley-oop dunk from Jamel Brimlett.

Glenn led with 21 points and 12 rebounds while Brimlett had 15 points and was 9-of-14 from the free throw line.

The Tide will match up with the Upson-Lee Knights in the Sweet Sixteen this weekend. The Knights defeated fourth-seeded Carver-Columbus 72-70 in overtime.