The Long County Blue Tide basketball teams are now fully in the swing of things for the 2023-24 season. They hosted the Savannah Country Day Hornets in a big region game on Saturday, Dec 9 with the boys coming out on top 69-54 and the girls falling late 46-35.
It was a battle of region unbeatens as the Lady Tide took the court at full strength with their flag football players rejoining the team. It seemed to help them out tremendously as they used a 6-0 run in the first quarter to take an early 6-2 lead.
The Hornets stormed back with a 6-0 run of their own as they took an 8-6 lead and led the Tide 12-10 going into the second quarter. They capped off a 7-0 run early in the second quarter to go up 15-10, the biggest lead of the game for either team at that point.
One of the biggest reasons for the low-scoring affair from the Tide was their 3-point shooting. The team was 0-7 from 3 in the first half, leading to their 24-18 deficit going into the locker room.
The Hornets used a 7-0 run to open the third quarter to go up 31-18 with 3:45 left in the quarter. The Lady Tide were held scoreless until 2:30 left in the third before Makinzie Moody and Kelly Stokes both hit back-to-back layups to cut into the Hornets lead.
Moody capped off a 7-0 run with a 3 at the 2:00 mark, the first and only make of the game for the Tide. They cut the Hornets lead to six going into the fourth.
They rolled their run that started at the 2:30 mark of the third to 11-2 to make the score 33-29 with 7:30 left in the game. Over the next two minutes, however, the Hornets went on another run of their own to go up 12 with 5:30 left in the game.
This run was just too much for the Tide to overcome as they fell to the Hornets to suffer their first region loss of the season.
The Lady Tide now fall to 1-4 and 1-1 in the region. Moody led the Tide with 15 points.
The boys took the court looking to notch their second straight win after a 69-35 beat down of rival Tattnall County Tuesday.
It was a back-and-forth affair in the first quarter as both teams tried to get going from 3-point range, but just could not connect. The Tide went 1-of-7 from 3 with Roderick Randall making the only attempt while the Hornets were 2-of-6.
The Tide led 17-14 going into the second quarter but started to turn it on late in the quarter. With a 21-17 lead, another big Randall 3 opened a 9-2 run for the Tide as they went up 30-19 with 2:00 left in the half. They led 30-21 going into the locker room.
As is customary for the Reggie Wilkes-led Blue Tide, they got hot in the third quarter, scoring 20 points, but not before the Hornets went on a 10-3 run to open and cut the lead down to 33-31 with 5:00 left.
The Tide went on another 8-2 run late in the third as they went back up by 8 with 2:38 left. With an 8-point lead, Randall hit a three at the buzzer to put the Tide up 50-39 going into the fourth.
Senior guards Chuck Anderson and Keshawn Smith led the charge in the fourth, pushing the Tide’s lead out to as much as 21 before they made some substitutions late.
Four Tide players scored in double digits. Randall led with 17 and added six assists. Smith scored 11 and Anderson added 10 with junior center Christ Hatfield falling two rebounds short of a double-double with 10 points and eight rebounds.
The Tide are now 4-1 on the year with a 1-1 region record. They travel to Savannah Tuesday, Dec 12 to play the Savannah Christian Red Raiders. They will be back on the road Friday to play the Wayne County Yellow Jackets and will host Claxton on Saturday for their Alumni Night game.