Against Tattnall, Shanetra Quarterman led the Lady Blue Tide (2-5 overall, 1-1 Region 2-AA) with 17 points. Brittany Mills added 13 points, while India Gamble contributed eight points.

"Brittany played strong and so did Shanetra on the offensive end," assistant coach Tony Brown said. "Defensively, (Caela) LaRochester had a great night."

Brown said the Lady Tide had a good first half, but fatigue set in during the second half. Long County was coming off a home loss to Liberty County on Friday.

"(Tattnall) hurt us on the glass, too," Brown said. "They got a lot of offensive rebounds."

So far, the Lady Tide have lost to Class AA Tattnall, Class AAA Liberty (twice), Class AAAAA Bradwell Institute and Class AAAA Glynn Academy. Their wins came over Class AAAA Wayne and Class AA St. Vincent’s.

"The tough early schedule will help us in region play," Brown said. "Everything we do is set up to help prepare us for the state tournament."

Brown said what Long County needs right now is better play from its reserves.

"As the season goes on, and as we are able (to get more production from our bench), then we will get better," he said.

In Saturday’s junior varsity game at Tattnall, Long notched its first win, 19-16. Miranda McDowell and Sarah Mahan each scored eight points.

Long County boys

Brown, who is also the boys assistant, said the Blue Tide (2-5, 0-2) simply ran out of gas in their loss to Tattnall.

"It came down to conditioning," Brown said. "When they made their run in the fourth quarter, we just made too many fatigue mistakes."

Brown applauded his team’s effort. Among the standouts was Jimmy Bacon, who led the Tide in scoring with 31 points despite playing very little in the third quarter because of an ankle injury.

The loss was the fourth in a row for Long, the defending Region 2-AA champion.

"We are the defending champs, and with that, all teams are gunning for us and bringing their best game," Brown said. "We also have played a tougher early schedule this year, and we have had a few players miss some games early in the season," Brown said.

"We would like to be 7-0, and you don’t want to make excuses, but those are some of the things that have contributed to the losses.

"But understand, we’re not discouraged. We knew this year would be a challenge. We still know what we have to do. We want to win all our home games, have a strong January, work on our conditioning, and be ready for the state tournament."

In the Long-Tattnall JV game, the Tide edged the Battle Creek Warriors 53-52 in double overtime. Justin Johnson and Chris Buckner led Long with 13 points apiece.