The Liberty County High School girls’ basketball team went on a first-period tear and never looked back in a 73-24 win over Long County High School on Tuesday in Ludowici.
The Lady Panthers jumped out to a big 15-2 lead in the first period, but the Lady Tide fought back to narrow the gap to 31-10 at the half.
In the third and fourth periods, it was evident that the 2A-AAAA Lady Panthers were too much for the Lady Tide from Region 2-AA.
Long County High School’s Jameka Boyd led all scorers with 16 points. Brittany Hall chipped in four points.
Brianna Reece paced Liberty with 14 points, while Jasminia Smith and Bryanna Graham scored 13 and 10 points, respectively.
Liberty County coach Carolyn Kelly said she didn’t know what to expect from Long County.
“We didn’t know what Long County had this year,” Kelly said. “The girls had a little bit of the jitters early on. ... We wanted to work on the rotation of our zone so that we could make sure the girls were moving where we wanted them to go.”
Kelly said she was able to get her seniors adequate playing time but also was able to get some time on the court for several of her younger players, too.
Lady Tide coach Ryan Bailey said he could see much improvement from last year. “We’re still young. ... We played hard, but we didn’t execute,” Bailey said. “We want to stay engaged defensively and work on our execution. ...
“Hopefully by the middle of the season we’ll be hitting on all cylinders.”
Bailey also commented on two of his player’s individual efforts.
“Jameka Boyd had a good game. She was our leading scorer. And Raven Rose played very hard on defense,” Bailey said.
The Lady Panthers will take on Beach High at 6:30 tonight in Savannah.
The Lady Tide are off until Nov. 26, when they travel to Wayne County to take on the Lady Yellow Jackets.

For more pictures from the game, go to www.coastalcourier.com.