The boys’ and girls’ basketball teams at Bradwell Institute continue Region 3-AAAAA action tonight when they play host to Savannah High. The Lady Tigers open the doubleheader, tipping off at
7 p.m.
Across town, Liberty County High School’s Lady Panthers and Panthers bid for their first Region 2A-AAAA win tonight when they play host to Wayne County, beginning with the girls’ game at 6:30 p.m.
Both squads have been busy since the holiday break.
The Lady Tigers lost 58-54 to Windsor Forest on Jan. 6 but rebounded Tuesday at Islands High to win 67-15. Shaquoia Crockett led the girls with 20 points and Latisha Frasier added 10. The girls are 5-7 overall and 4-3 in the region going into tonight’s game.
Reflecting on the past two games, Lady Tigers coach Faye Baker said her girls had the opportunity to beat Windsor Forest.
“We didn’t make the right decisions,” she said. “We were up and we should have just killed the clock, run some time off, but we came down and took some shots that we didn’t need to take and that allowed them to get back into the game.”
Baker said those mistakes stem from lack of experience.
“We have to learn to convert,” she said. “Our offensive sets are working because we are getting the shots that we want, but we are just not executing to the basket.”
She said playing Islands High School not only added a region win but afforded her the opportunity to play her reserves and give them some floor experience.
“Everybody on my team had an opportunity to play,” she said. “One thing you can’t teach is floor experience. The more the kids and the reserves get to play, the better off we are going to be.”
Baker hopes the extra experience will prepare the team for tonight’s region game against Savannah, but even more so, ready her squad for a rematch against top-seeded Beach High next Tuesday.
The Lady Blue Jackets are 7-4 overall and 3-2 in the region and are in fourth place, a spot ahead of the Lady Tigers. However, Baker noted, it’s still early in the season.
“We still have a lot of region games left,” she said. “We are just trying to take it one game at a time and hopefully the second time around we can win a few more than we did the first time around. And if we can do that, we’ll be in pretty good shape.”
Last week, the Tiger boys beat Windsor Forest, 64-56, and on Tuesday they pummeled Islands High School, 74-47, to improve to 7-5 overall and 6-1 in the region. Javante Richey led the boys with 22 points against Islands. Dazjon Tinae chipped in 15 and Miguel Pineda also scored in double digits with 10.
Savannah High and the BI boys currently are tied for second in the region, but the Blue Jackets are 12-1 in the series since 2005. Savannah is ranked No. 6 in Class AAAAA in the  latest PrepCountry.com coaches poll.
The Liberty Panthers were in Brunswick on Tuesday night, where the boys suffered their second loss of the season. The Pirates defeated the Panthers, 62-51, dropping the Panthers to 12-2 overall and 0-2 in Region 2A-AAAA. The Lady Panthers also fell to Brunswick, losing 64-54. They are 6-5 overall and 0-2 in the region.
Both the Panthers and the Yellow Jacket boys are searching for their first region win of the season. Wayne County is coming off a buzzer-beater loss to Long County on Saturday in a non-region game and a 78-67 region loss to Richmond Hill on Tuesday.