The Long County High School boys and girls basketball teams played in the Portal Holiday Classic Christmas Tournament last week.
For the Lady Tide the tourney was a positive one with them picking up three more wins. But the Blue Tide’s struggles continued as they fell in their two games.
On Dec. 26, the Lady Tide demolished host school Portal 56-19. On Dec. 27, they picked up their second win, beating Jenkins High School, 52-47, in Savannah. On Monday, they concluded their onslaught, defeating Jefferson County, 48-41, in Louisville.
The leading scorer for the girls was Elexxus Wrighton, who averaged 12 points a game throughout the tournament and had 18 rebound through the three-game stretch.
With the wins, the girls improved their overall record to 10-4, which is twice as many victories as they had through their entire season last year.
“The tournament was a great run for us,” coach Brian Todd said. “Our first game was a blowout, but the last two tested us in close-game situations. Our three leading scorers (Katie Estill, Malaka Elix and Wrighton) stepped up for us all weekend... We hope this springboards us into a successful second half of the season.”
For the Blue Tide the weekend was another testament of futility as they lost both of their games. On Dec, 26, they fell to Portal, 85-72, and then on Dec. 27 they lost a nail-biter to Appling County, 56-54.
With the losses, the boys fell to 3-9 overall.
Saturday, the Long County teams traveled to Candler County to take on the Metter High School teams. Results from those game will be in Wednesday’s paper. On Tuesday, the Blue Tide and Lady Tide have big 2-AA Region games in Alma against Bacon County. The Raiders go into that contest with a 4-3 overall record and a 2-2 mark in the region, while the Lady Raiders have yet to win a game and sit at 0-7 overall and 0-4 in the region. The girls begin at 6 p.m. with the boys following at 7:30.