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Long County Blue Tide to play state play-off game tonight in Ludowici
Gym
The Long County High School Gym should be packed tonight as the Blue Tide host a State Playoff Game against Bleckley County High School. - photo by Mike Riddle / Coastal Courier

LUDOWICI — The Blue Tide Basketball Team didn’t have much time to celebrate winning their 2-AA Region Championship this week, since they had to prepare for the state tournament.
The Long County team will be at home tonight, and should they win will also host a second round game on Tuesday. Before they can think about a game next week they will have to get by the Bleckley County Royals.
The Purple and Gold Royals come into the game having lost both of their games in the 4-AA Region Tournament, but are went into that tournament as the number three seed. During their regular season they had a 10-8 overall record and a 7-5 record in their region, averaging 52 points a game on offense, but giving up 55 in each contest.
Don’t think this team is a slouch. Just last year, they went to the third round of the state tournament, before losing a heartbreaker 31-30 to the Dodge County Indians, who were runnersup in the state championship game.
The Blue Tide are coming off one of their best performances of the year, as they defeated number two seed Savannah Christian and number one Appling County in the Region 2-AA Tournament.
In the region tournament against Appling County, the team defeated the number two team in the state by playing solid defense.  In the first two games against the Pirates the Blue Tide allowed 69 points, losing both contests. But last week in the region finals, they held the powerhouse team to 43 points.
Defense is where the Long County team is suspect, as is shown in their six losses this season.  In those games they gave up an average of 66.6 points a game, which in the state tournament will be too much to overcome.
The offense of the Blue Tide has been a juggernaut all season, averaging almost 70 points a game and able to score from all over the court with just about any player on the court.
They had the number one offense in the 2-AA Region, and are averaging more per game than seven of the top ten 2-AA teams in the state.
The Blue Tide is currently ranked number seven in the state in the GACA Coaches Poll.  The game will be tonight with tip off being at 7:30.

Round one
The Men Panthers host Worth County tonight at 7 p.m. at the LCHS gym.
Full details and results in Sunday’s Courier.
The Lady Tigers of Bradwell head to Warner Robins on Saturday. Tip-off is at 6 p.m.
The Lady Panthers travel to Albany for a 6 p.m. game. The results of the ladies games will be in Wednesday Courier.
Information on all the local teams are still posted on the Courier’s Web site www.coastalcourier.com

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