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Tide girls fall late, boys dominate South Effingham
0206 Blue Tide logo

The Long County Blue Tide basketball teams gave the home crowd a nice sendoff for Thanksgiving break with a terrific girls game and a dominant performance in the boys game. The Lady Tide fell to the South Effingham Mustangs 39-37 thanks to a shot in the final seconds and the boys blew out the Mustangs 73-44.

The girls were coming off a 25-23 buzzer beating loss to the New Hampstead Phoenix on Tuesday, they welcomed in another 5A opponent on Friday, November 22. It was a low-scoring affair in the first quarter as the score was tied at six going into the second quarter.

The Lady Tide went on an 8-2 run to take the 14-8 lead with 5:47 left in the first half. The Tide got a boost from junior Rebekah Gordon in second quarter as she recorded five rebounds and her team lead 19-14 going into the half.

Down 23-17, South Effingham went on a 9-2 run late in the third quarter to take a 26-25 lead and led 27-25 going into the final period. The Lady Tide went on a big 10-2 run to open the fourth quarter and had a 35-29 lead as it looked like they would pull off a huge win.

However, the Mustangs got back into the game and went on a 6-0 run to tie the game at 35 with 1:16 left in the game. The Mustangs were able to take a 39-37 lead with a shot from the free-throw line in the final seconds.

The Lady Tide worked their way back down the court, but Breyahn Maddox’s shot fell just short as they fell to 0-2 in a heartbreaking game.

The boys started off slowly in the first quarter against the Mustangs, leading just 9-6 with two minutes left in the first quarter. They went on a 6-0 run and were up by nine going into the second.

Long County dominated in the second quarter, outscoring the Mustangs 25-12. Dederick Stewart was 2-4 from three-point range and scored eight points in the quarter. Adison Russel scored seven of his 13 points in the second quarter as well.

Trajan Weatherspoon sat out the first half, but came off the bench in the third quarter and scored all eight of his points, including a rim-rocking dunk that got the crowd on its feet. He pulled down six rebounds as well.

The Tide went on a 14-1 run to open the second half to go up 55-19. They never looked back, but did slow up in the fourth quarter, which was shortened to six minutes. They moved on to the 73-44 win to get to 2-0 on the year.

The Tide had four players in double digits, including sophomore Cam Johnson who had 13 points and eight rebounds. Xavier Carlton also had 12 points and seven rebounds.

The Blue Tide will compete in the Hugh McBride Classic in Hazelhurst on Saturday, November 23 and Monday, November 25. The girls will play Montgomery County on Saturday while the boys play Ware County on Saturday. Both teams will play host Jeff Davis on Monday.

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