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Long County boys advance to 2-AA championship game
Lady Tide fall in semifinals
LongVsBryanBBB 1
Long Countys Ryheim Izzard goes up for a layup against Bryan County on Friday in Ludowici. - photo by Photo by Brent Zell/Bryan County News

With Long County hosting the Region 2-AA basketball tournament, all of the hometown fans had high hopes that both the Blue Tide and the Lady Tide could make it to the championship game on Saturday. Though both teams played well this week, after Friday night’s action only the Blue Tide remained in contention for a title.

The Long County boys went into the tournament as the No. 2 seed, so they were given a bye into the semifinals. Their opponent, Bryan County, went into the tournament as the No. 6 seed and had to get by Bacon County earlier in the week. Though Friday’s semifinal game between the Blue Tide and the Redskins was competitive and close at times, when the final buzzer sounded, Long County defeated Bryan County 78-62.

Friday’s other boys’ semifinal game matched up No. 1 seed Vidalia against No. 4 seed Benedictine Military School. The Cadets stunned everybody by knocking off the Indians 66-53. On Saturday, Long County and Benedictine faced off to see who would be this year’s region champs, but results from that game were not available by press time.

Wednesday, the Long County girls’ basketball team advanced to the semifinals of the Region 2-AA basketball tournament with a 64-61 win over McIntosh County Academy. That game was close through two periods of play, with the Lady Tide taking a 26-19 lead in at the break. In the third period, Long County came out on fire, going on a 10-0 run to go up by 17 points. But with a fourth period rally by the Lady Buccaneers, the game was tied at 59-59 with less than a minute to play. During that final minute, Long County managed to get to the free-throw line three times. With clutch free-throw shooting by Katie Estill and Elexuss Wrighton, the Lady Tide pulled away to secure the three-point victory.

On Friday, the Long County girls were hoping that they could follow the Blue Tide into the finals, but their opponent, Vidalia, had other ideas. The Lady Indians were too much for the Lady Tide, beating the host team 57-49. In Friday’s other semifinal game, Jeff Davis beat St. Vincent’s Academy 49-41.

On Saturday, Vidalia and Jeff Davis went at to see who would take the girls’ region trophy home. The Lady Tide played St. Vincent’s to determine the third- and fourth-place teams.

See Wednesday’s Coastal Courier or go to www.coastalcourier.com to see where the Long County teams finished in the tournament.

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