As the Bradwell Institute boys and girls basketball teams had outstanding regular seasons – the girls being undefeated – their Region 1-5A tournament titles last weekend came as no surprise.
The stunning part came afterward, when the Coastal Courier reported on Saturday night that it was the first time since 1959 that the Tigers captured region basketball championships in the same season.
“That’s what they said the other night,” Ty Randolph, in his sixth season as the Bradwell boys basketball coach, said on Monday. “We were more focused on completing the mission. When they did say that, it was rather shocking.”
His Tigers also won the region crown in the 2022-23 season. Bradwell girls coach Faye Baker, in her 31st season with back-to-back region titles to her credit, sounded apologetic in reference to the 67-year gap.
“We messed it up,” Baker recalled on Monday. “We missed the boat on it three years ago when the boys won in 2023. We had won the regular-season title, but we were upset in the region title game against Ware County (57-49) that year. It would have happened that year if we had taken care of business on our part.
“It was really incredible to hear that it’s been that long since girls and boys won in the same year,” she continued.
The Bradwell girls didn’t let history repeat itself at this season’s region tournament at Evans, with Brunswick in the role as spoiler instead of Ware County on Friday. Brunswick, like Ware County from 2022-23, had lost both regular-season meetings with the Tigers to represent, in this case, all of the Pirates’ region losses and two of their five overall setbacks at the time.
“Once you play each other for a third time and a region opponent, everybody pretty much knows each other’s patterns,” Baker said of trying to beat a team three times in one season. “We knew it was going to be a tough, tough game. It was pretty much an even game.”
Bradwell was up 14-11 after one quarter, played even for the next two, and made clutch free throws in the final stanza for a 58-51 victory.
The Tigers improved to 26-0, including 8-0 In region regular-season games, they were ranked No. 3 in the most recent Class 5A state rankings on sandysspiel.com.
“Playing Brunswick three times definitely has been a test along with some other teams in our region, other close games that we’ve had,” Baker said. “Brunswick is definitely a formidable opponent. I’m glad we were able to come out of there with a win.”
The Tigers, as a region champion, will host a GHSA Class 5A first-round game on either Feb. 24 or 25 against the No. 4 seed from the Region 8 tournament, which will be played this week.
Bradwell Institute, which also will host the boys’ tournament opener against a Region 8 team to be determined, might try to play a doubleheader featuring both Tigers squads on one of those two days, Randolph and Baker said.
The Bradwell boys (19-5) were at the top of the region regular-season standings (7-1) before crushing host Evans 65-36 on Saturday in the region tournament title game.
Baker said of the boys' team: “They put on an exhibition that night. They continue playing like that, they will make a deep run. I am excited about both programs.”
Mutual admiration
The programs complement – and complement – each other, said the coaches, as one’s success helps the other.
“We always say, ‘iron sharpens iron.’ Coach Baker is a legend to me,” Randolph said. “I’ve known her a long time before I got here. She’s done an amazing job here in the last 30, 31 years. We just want to create a high standard of basketball for Bradwell and Liberty County.”
Baker, who took a second Bradwell squad in her tenure to the state semifinals last season, said the girls and boys teams work together sometimes in the weight room and in skills training.
“We’re all pretty much one big family,” Baker said. “We’re always rooting for each other, trying to make each other better. I do feel like it has rubbed off. It’s been really, really nice working with Coach Randolph because not only does he care about his program, but he cares about the ladies’ program as well. I feel the same way about his boys program.”
She noted how Randolph has “turned that program around tremendously,” and records bear that out.
He arrived a season after the Tigers went 2-23, 0-8 in Region 2-6A in 2019-20. Randolph’s first squad, still in Class 6A, started building the foundation by going 5-13, 2-10 in region play.
Only winning seasons have followed: 15-13 (6A), 16-9, 22-7, 21-7, and, so far, 19-5 (all in 5A).
The Tigers opened the season 7-0 despite missing a big, physical presence in senior Jaylin Sweat, a West Georgia signee who sustained an ankle injury in a preseason workout and required surgery, Randolph said.
The coach, thankful for medical staff and, as a man of faith, for a higher power, said the team wasn’t certain that Sweat would even play this season before he returned in late December.
The Tigers are blessed with talent in addition to the 6-foot-7 Sweat, whom Randolph called “a dominant guy, kind of a freak of an athlete.” Sweat averages 13.0 points and 5.9 rebounds and is shooting 60% from the field for 14 games.
Senior Christopher Perry, a 6-7 forward who signed with North Florida, is an extension of the coach on the court, “a really talented guy on the floor, can make adjustments on his own for the better of the team,” the coach said. Perry averages 13.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 3.3 assists.
Randolph views junior Zi’on Thomas, a highly recruited 6-5 forward, as “a generational talent” with potential beyond the college ranks. Thomas leads the Tigers with 15.6 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks in 23 games.
Guards EJ Hale, a “natural” at the point who tops the team with 4.8 assists and 2.7 steals per game, and Keon Grant complete the starting lineup. Top reserves include juniors Jah’Barri Felix (the football team’s quarterback) and Fortune Hicks, who transferred from McIntosh County Academy, which played last season in the GHSA Class A Division II title game against champion Savannah High.
On balance, the Tigers girls win.
Both Bradwell teams have state title aspirations, with the girls’ success built on defense and a pass-friendly offense in which the leading scorer, sophomore guard Destini McLemore (13.4 points per game), actually prefers to come off the bench.
“She’s a great sixth man,” Baker said. “She changes the dynamic of the game when she comes in.”
McLemore started when point guard Janiyah Blevins was injured, but the Tigers are getting healthier with another week before the next game.
The starting lineup ideally will be Blevins (team highs of 3.4 assists and 3.7 steals per game), senior guards Jamia Ousley and Ja’Nya Bush (10.4 ppg), junior forward Mikayla Oliveira (9.1 ppg, team-high 9.5 rebounds), and Kaydence Kern, a forward who has been out with a neck injury, Baker said.
“We’re balanced,” Baker said. “You never know who’s going to show up on any given night. There’s not one particular player that you can key on to shut us down because we’re so well-balanced.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy Liberty County Sports Photo Page
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Team physicians include Dr. Don Aaron (Bryan County), Dr. David Sedory (Benedictine, Bradwell Institute, Liberty County), Dr. David Palmer (Calvary Day, Richmond Hill, South Effingham), and Dr. Thomas Alexander (Savannah Country Day, St. Vincent’s Academy).
