The Long County girls’ basketball team did something Tuesday that no other Region 2-AA team has been able to do this year — beat Vidalia.
Despite falling behind by 10 points, the Lady Tide never panicked as they chipped away at the Lady Indian lead. With less than a minute to play Vidalia only led by three. Long County put the ball in play, and Mya Howard drove to the net, making her layup and narrowing the deficit to one.
The Lady Indians brought the ball in, but after a turnover, Long County had the ball again. With all standing on their feet in the packed Ludowici gym, this time, Katie Estill put up a jump shot that fell through the basket, giving the home team a 51-50 victory.
After the game, Lady Tide Head Coach Brian Todd said he is proud that his team never lost its focus after falling behind.
“To be able to beat a caliber team like Vidalia says a lot about how far this group has come in three years,” he said. “We got down by 10 points late in the game, but we just kept pushing forward. I’m proud of the effort and focus we brought to the game.”
Todd said the final score reflects just how close the game was all night.
“We just never gave up or backed down,” he said. “We had a great practice the day before, trying to work on Vidalia’s tendencies. And even though we hit a cold spell, we rebounded and were able to pull off the victory.”
Todd said his team’s balance and depth off the bench were once again huge in getting the win.
“I thought we got huge minutes out of Jakayla Porter off the bench, with Lexi (Elexxus Wrighton) being in foul trouble we needed some post help, she even added some buckets which is always nice; to be able to pull out a win with Katie only scoring four points says a lot about our balance, we just have to stay focused and take it one game at a time,” he said.
The leading scorers for the Lady Tide were Malaka Elix who had 8 points and Anazha Kincaid who had 11 points. The leading scorer for Vidalia was Regan Norfleet who had 13 points.
With the region win, Long County improved its overall record to 13-5 and its region mark to 6-2.
Vidalia fell to 14-2 overall and 7-1 in the region.
On Friday, the Lady Tide traveled to Pembroke and beat Bryan County 64-56. Stats were not immediately available.
The Lady Tide improved to 14-5 overall and 7-2 in the region, while the Lady Redskins fell to 10-7 and 4-5. On Saturday, Long County was back at home to take on Ware County (6-8) in a non-region contest. See Wednesday’s Courier for a full report on these two games.
On Tuesday, Long County will take on Jeff Davis (16-1 and 6-1) in Ludowici in another region game.
Tipoff for that game is at 6 p.m.