The Long County Blue Tide basketball teams closed out the home stretch of 2023 with a sweep of former region foe Vidalia on Thursday, Dec. 21. It took a late rally for the girls to pull off a 36-35 upset while the boys were in control from the opening tip in a 52-39 win.
After the junior varsity girls scored six points in the final 45 seconds to win on a last-second layup, the varsity girls took the floor looking to close out 2023 on a high note. It was a low-scoring affair in the first quarter as they trailed 6-4 going into the second quarter.
The Lady Tide have been up and down from 3-point range all season and Thursday’s game was a down night. The team was 0-of-6 from 3 in the first quarter and missed another four before Imani Pouncey hit a 3 in the closing seconds to give her team a 13-12 lead at the half.
In the third quarter, the Lady Tide pulled away early on a 3 from Makinzie Moody and another bucket as they led 18-12. The Indians went on a 6-0 run over the next two minutes to tie the game with 3:00 left in the quarter.
They pushed the run out to 8-0 to take a 20-18 lead at the 2:45 mark. The Indians led 24-22 going into the fourth quarter.
The Indians scored to go up by two late in the third quarter and added another five points in the fourth to push their run out to 7-0 to go up 29-22 with 7:03 left in the game.
It looked as though the Indians were going to pull away before the Lady Tide, down 31-26, went on a 5-0 run to tie the game with 2:20 left. The Indians took a 33-31 lead with less than a minute left before freshman Zae Buckner hit a big 3 give her team a 34-33 lead with 0:40 left.
Buckner talked about the big 3 after the game and said she was just focused on making sure her team pulled out the win.
“It was good that we went up,” Buckner said. “I just wanted to make sure we didn’t make any mistakes.”
They did not.
Moody forced a turnover on the next possession and got fouled on her way to the bucket. She sank both free throws to put her team up 36-33 with just seconds left as the Tide held on to win.
Moody led the Tide with 18 points. The Tide moved to 3-7 on the year and have a long rest for the holidays as they will host the 7-0 Calvary Day Cavaliers on Friday, Jan 5.
The boys took the floor and looked to continue their winning ways against the 6-2 Indians. They got off to a hot start as they went on a 13-2 run to the 1:00 mark of the first quarter and led 18-7 at the end of the first after a buzzer-beating 3 by Chuck Anderson.
The second quarter was a low-scoring one as the Indians closed the game to just four points at one point, but the Tide held on to lead 24-15 going to the locker room at halftime.
The Tide built their biggest lead of the game in the third quarter as they went on an 8-0 run to go up 36-21 and led by 14 going into the fourth quarter.
Anderson stayed hot from 3, hitting three in the fourth quarter as the Tide finished off the Indians to win their seventh straight game. Anderson led with 18 points, hitting 80% from three. Roderick Randall added 15.
All nine of the Tide’s wins have come by double digits. They will be on the road in Adairsville next week for the AHS Christmas Bash Dec. 28-30. They will take on the Sequoyah Chiefs in the first round of the tournament.