The Long County High School boys’ basketball team split games at the South Effingham Thanksgiving Throwdown. On Friday, the Blue Tide defeated South Effingham, 67-59, but lost to Claxton, 60-57, the following night.
In the game against the Mustangs, the Blue Tide (1-2) came out hot with everything working on offense and defense. By the end of the first period, Long County led, 24-7.
“The South Effingham game was a tale of two halves,” Long County coach Deshon Brock said. “The first half we came out blazing and everyone was where they were supposed to be on defense. … The second half we did not play with the same level of urgency. We were able to hold them off in the fourth, but we had too many turnovers from unforced errors.”
In Saturday’s game, the Blue Tide were able to get the Tigers into early foul trouble but couldn’t take advantage of it.
“I thought we played hard … but we missed too many of the front ends of the one-on-one situations that we were awarded. The 10 missed free throws in the second half really hurt us. In a close game, every free throw counts,” Brock said.
He said the Blue Tide looked very good, at times, during the tournament.
But there also were times the Tide didn’t look very good, Brock said.
“I think that Chris LaRochester and Vanda Vareen have really solidified the point guard position and are running the team how I want them to run it,” Brock said. “Henry (Peoples), Johannae (Jones) and Yusuf (Gooding) are really controlling the glass, and when my guards help them, our defensive rebounding numbers look better.”
The coach added that he was pleased with the depth on his roster with Josh Berry, Kalope McCray, Jeffery Hall, Vareen and Gooding ready to come in when
needed.
“With a little fine tuning and correcting some minor mistakes I think we will be all right,” Brock said.
The Blue Tide travel to Wayne County on Saturday for a non-region matchup.