The Long County boys picked up their eighth win of the year on Saturday, beating border rival Wayne County 82-77 in Ludowici.

The non-region win avenged an opening season loss in November when the Yellow Jackets beat the Blue Tide 74-64. With the win, the Blue Tide improved their overall record to 8-2 and while their region mark remained at 4-1.

Long County is currently ranked at #18 in the state in the AA MaxPreps/Power Poll. Wayne County fell to 3-9 overall.

With the Christmas break at hand, Long County is currently sitting in the second spot in Region 2-AA, one game behind Vidalia, which is 5-0 (10-0 overall). Rounding out the region standings, Benedictine is 3-1 (4-3), Bryan County is 3-2 (6-3), Jeff Davis is 2-2 (5-6), Bacon County is 1-4 (3-6), McIntosh County is 1-4 (1-8), and Groves sits in the cellar at 0-5 (0-10).

The Blue Tide are off until Dec. 28, when they play in the Portal Holiday Classic Tournament in Bulloch County. The Blue Tide will first play Dodge County, which is 5-2 overall. On Dec. 29, the Blue Tide face the tournament host Portal, which is 2-6. The Dodge County game begins on Friday at 5 p.m. and the Portal game at 7 p.m.