The Long County Blue Tide basketball teams will both be playing for spots in the region championship tonight. They played host to the second round of the Region 3-AAA tournament on Wednesday, February 15 and came away with wins, with the girls beating Beach 48-42 and the boys downing Calvary 56-41.

The wins also put the Long County boys and girls into the Class AAA state playoffs.

The Lady Tide, tabbed as the four seed and earning the right to host, won both regular season matchups by more than 20 points, the Lady Tide looked to repeat that feat, But it was a much different contest this time around.

The Lady Blue Tide held a 13-12 lead early in the second quarter on consecutive buckets, and the run stretched to 8-0 as the Tide went up 17-12 with 2:45 left in the half. They led 19-17 going into the locker room despite going 0-of-7 from 3-point range.

Beach opened the second half on a 9-2 run to take a 26-21 lead at the 5:00 mark. The Lady Bulldogs led 35-28 late in the quarter, but two quick turnovers and buckets cut the lead down to 35-32. 

Beach led by three going into the fourth quarter, a much different game from the first two where the games were decided by halftime. However, the Lady Tide 4-0 run at the end of the third turned into a 15-2 run for a 43-37 lead.

With the win, the Tide will take on regular season region champion Calvary Day on Friday with the game taking place at Calvary’s campus. The Lady Tide have made the state tournament for the second year in a row.

The boys entered the game as the fifth seed in the region and were wearing blue jerseys and labeled as the Away team on the scoreboard in their own gym.

The Blue Tide went on a 12-2 run in the second quarter after going down by five. They led 18-13 with 2:15 left, but the Cavaliers went on a run of their own as they went up 21-20 with 30 seconds left and led 23-20 at the half.

Junior Keshawn Smith had a big second quarter, scoring eight points while sophomore Chris Hatfield played a big role defensively, grabbing five rebounds and recording two blocks.

The Tide opened the second half on an 8-0 run to go up 28-23. Hatfield continued to play big, blocking two more shots and grabbing three more rebounds while scoring four points.

Smith hit a buzzer-beating 3 from NBA range to push the Tide’s lead to 38-29, outscoring the Cavaliers 18-6 in the quarter.

The Cavaliers cut the Tide’s lead down to six points, but the Tide pushed it to a double-digit lead with an 8-3 run to go up 50-39 with two minutes left.

Smith led with 21 points. CJ Glenn scored 14 points, 10 in the fourth, and eight rebounds. Hatfield had six points, 10 rebounds and five blocks, playing a big role on defense.

This also gave Reggie Wilkes his 100th win as the Tide’s head coach and sent the Tide to their eighth straight state playoff berth, sixth under Wilkes.

The Tide will look to play in their fourth straight region championship game with a win over Beach tonight.