The Blue Tide boys earned a win while the girls suffered yet another loss when Long County High School played host to Appling County on Saturday.
The Long County boys had little trouble knocking off the Pirates, 70-40. After both teams scored early, the Blue Tide went on a 13-0 run and never looked back.
Chris LaRochester led Long County with 15 points and Jarquez Payne added 11.
The win was the fourth in a row for the Blue Tide and their seventh in eight outings, improving their overall record to 9-5 and their all-important Region 2-AA to 6-2.  In the girls’ game, Long County dropped its 14th game of the season in a 59-22 loss to the Lady Pirates.  The loss dropped the girls overall record to 0-14 and their 2-AA mark to 0-10. 
The Lady Tide came out playing aggressive basketball and trailed only 8-6 at the end of the first period,  but Appling County shut down Long County in the second period and led 21-6 at half time.
Mikayla Lovette led Long County with eight points. Vontay Turner chipped in with six points and Raven Rose and Jameka Boyd had four points each.
Briyanna Brantley was the top scorer for the Lady Pirates with 15 points.
Though the Lady Tide lost, coach Ryan Bailey praised his team’s effort.
“They continued to hustle, nobody ever gave up and they kept playing hard,” Bailey said. “Tonight we did put some new things in and though it didn’t show up on the scoreboard, I hope that by tournament time they may be effective.”
Long County played host to Vidalia on Tuesday night and travel to Jeff Davis on Friday.

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