The Long County Blue Tide basketball closed out its home stretch for 2019 as they hosted next-county rival McIntosh County Academy on Tuesday, December 17. It was a dominant night for the Tide as they swept the Buccaneers with a dominant performance.
The night started with the junior varsity boys defeating MCA 42-39 in overtime. Sophomore Dwayne Rowe led his team with 17 points while fellow sophomore Prence Doomes added 15.
The Lady Tide took the court and looked to get their second win of the season, with their only win being against the Lady Buccaneers. The Tide started off dominating the Lady Bucs, holding MCA scoreless for the first 7:20 of the first quarter while opening up a 10-0 lead.
With a 10-2 lead going into the second quarter, the Lady Tide looked to continue their fast start, but only scored one point in the across a five minute, 21 second stretch from the end of the first quarter to midway through the second. However, they went on another run to push their lead to 16-4.
The Lady Bucs lived and died by the three point shot during the night as they missed their first nine attempts from behind the line. However, they hit their last two of the half as the Lady Tide led 16-10 going into the locker room.
MCA continued their three-point momentum into the second half as they hit their third in a row to make the score 16-13, capping off a 9-0 run back to the end of the first half. However, they seemed to cool off from three again as they missed their next six three point shots and the Lady Tide outscored them 14-5 across the final five minutes of the third quarter, mostly thanks to an 11-0 run.
Long County held a 30-18 lead in the fourth quarter, but MCA wouldn’t go away easily. The Bucs went on a 9-2 run, hitting three more three point shots, and made the score 32-27 with four minutes left in the game. However, the Tide went on another big run, scoring 10 straight points as they moved on to a 46-29 win, their largest win of the year and most points scored so far.
Senior Breyahn Maddox and sophomore Cecilla Burke both had a double-double on the night. Maddox had 13 points and 10 rebounds while Burke had 15 points and 11 rebounds. Sophomore Ke Osha McKeever had her best night of the season, scoring six points in the third quarter and going 4-6 from the free throw line.
The Lady Tide move to 2-8 on the year with the win and will play in a Christmas tournament in Wayne County Thursday, December 19 and Friday, December 20.
The boys took the floor next and seemed to get off to a slow start against the Buccaneers. The score was tied at eight late in the first quarter, but Long County went on an 8-0 run to take a 16-8 lead going into the second quarter.
The Tide used a 13-2 in the first two minutes of the quarter to take a 21-10 lead. The Buccaneers did not go away too easily, however, as the Tide weren’t able to pull too far away as they led 35-25 at the half. Senior Xavier Carlton had 12 points and eight rebounds at the half while fellow seniors Donovan Sykes and Samuel Turner added seven and six points.
The second half completely belonged to Long County as the Tide opened an 8-0 run to go up by 18 midway through the third quarter. They never looked back as they led 50-36 going into the final period of play. Sophomore Cameryn Johnson sat out most of the first half due to foul trouble, but more than made up for it with eight points in the quarter.
The fourth quarter saw the Tide’s most offensive production of the season as they scored 30 points. Senior Ethan Williams scored 12 points in the quarter. Trajan Weatherspoon added five points while Johnson threw down two huge dunks that got the crowd rocking.
The Tide moved on to an 80-54 win to move to 8-2 on the year. Williams was 3-4 from three point range with a game-high 17 points. Carlton recorded a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Johnson finished with 12 points and seven rebounds, all in the second half. Sykes had 13 points.
The Blue Tide will take place in the Gator Christmas Classic in Ware County on Thursday and Friday as they play Bradwell Institute and Jeff Davis.