PEMBROKE – High expectations created by success last season can be a burden that Savannah High boys basketball coach George Brown calls “a tiger on our back.”
“With these kids, it’s a tiger, not a monkey,” Brown said Friday night of early season recognition, such as the Blue Jackets’ No. 1 ranking in Georgia’s Class A Division II at Kyle Sandy’s sandysspiel.com.
He said that’s understandable. Savannah High is a senior-dominated team coming back from a run to the GHSA Class A Division I semifinals in 2023-24.
“We’re just confident with it and, hopefully, that we can continue to do the things we need to do in order to be successful,” Brown said. “It’s not going to be the big things; it’s going to be the little things. As long as we can control that, I think we’ll be fine.”
The Blue Jackets (4-1) needed a quarter to get going before surging past host Bryan County 61-47 on Friday night in Pembroke and improving to 2-0 in Region 3-A D-II.
The Bryan County girls basketball team, ranked No. 3 in the state in Class A D-II, opened the varsity doubleheader with a 46-24 victory over Savannah High to improve to 6-1 overall and 3-1 in the region.
Recaps of the games Friday night:
BOYS BASKETBALL
SAVANNAH HIGH 61, BRYAN COUNTY 47
The Blue Jackets were coming off of a huge offensive performance in a 99-68 win over Screven County on Tuesday. The squad’s leading scorer had 35 points, and it wasn’t all-state guard/forward Maki Joyner, who had 21.
Point guard Jermontae Brown put up 35 that night. Though the senior standouts were keys to Savannah High’s win over Bryan County, top-scoring honors Friday went to another senior guard, Zyaire Smart with 26.
PHOTO: THE HIGH'S ZY SMART DRIVINNG TO THE BASKET - RDP PRODUCTIONS
The Blue Jackets don’t rely on just that trio, either. Deshawn Davis, a 6-foot-9 shot-blocking machine comes to mind -- and he’s easy to spot -- among many contributors.
“My thing is I expect our 12 guys that I play to be better than your 12 guys,” Brown said. “We came together as a team kind of late (against the Redskins), and when shots aren’t falling, we’ve got to scrap a little bit, rebound, play defense.”
Bryan County (3-2, 2-2 region) led 12-6 after the first quarter before it was outscored 22-9 in the second. Joyner tallied 13 of his 17 points in the first half and Smart had 10 for a 28-21 advantage at halftime.
“It’s always tough to play in Bryan County,” Brown said. “They play a good brand of basketball. Their guys are competitive. They’re physical – we like that about them – a very, very physical team. They hit shots. I think Bryan County is one of the top teams in our region. Kudos to them. They’re a well-coached team, a very prepared staff. Any time we can play a good brand of basketball, we appreciate it, because it makes our guys better.”
The Blue Jackets “weathered the storm,” as Brown put it, and built their advantage to as many as 18 points in the third quarter. Even more impressive, it came after Joyner sat after drawing two quick fouls.
He had given SHS its first double-digit lead, 32-22, when he hit a runner in the lane just before the 6-minute mark.
After Joyner went to the bench, Smart hit a 3-pointer, sank two technical foul shots, and drilled another 3-pointer for 41-24 with three minutes left in the third.
Davis made two free throws for a 45-27 margin with 1:54 remaining. Bryan County’s Gerbravion Collins, who finished with a team-high 17 points, took a pass from Elijah Mincey (13 points) and nailed a 3-pointer from the left baseline to bring the hosts to within 45-33 at the close of the period.
Collins did it again with a long bomb from beyond the arc to open the fourth-quarter scoring, but the Blue Jackets responded with two baskets in that first minute.
Stephon Fox later blocked Mincey’s attempted fast-break layup after he stole the ball, and Romon Anderson made a circus shot in the lane for 51-37 with six minutes to play in regulation.
Down 12 with a minute remaining, Mincey drove for a layup and converted a three-point play. Smart, with the clock on his side, drilled a 3-pointer from the right baseline for a 59-47 with about 40 seconds left.
“That was his call, but I trust our guys,” Brown said. “As long as you’re down and ready to shoot the basketball, I’m cool with it. But when you’re not down and ready, when you’re rushing, when you’re not going through the proper steps, I tell our kids to do your work early. If you’re not doing your work early, then something bad is going to happen. He did his work.”
Joyner, who had returned to the court with 3:04 left in the fourth quarter, completed the game’s scoring with an emphatic dunk.
“I tell people all the time – and I get that people talk about their players – Maki Joyner is hands down the best player in the state, to me personally,” Brown said. “I say that because he affects the game in more than just scoring. He’s a walking triple-double, or he’s flirting with a triple-double every game. He makes everybody around him better. It’s hard to step in and be ‘the guy,’ knowing you’re the guy, and still producing.
“He's playing on a very, very talented team. If Maki was in a situation where he had to shoot 30 or 40 shots a game, he’d average 40 points a game.”
SAVANNAH HIGH (61)
Anderson 2, Maki Joyner 17, Brown 5, Ruth 6, Fox 2, Davis 3, Zyaire Smart 26.
BRYAN COUNTY (47)
Smith 5, Elijah Mincey 13, Gerbravion Collins 17, Edwards 5, Odum 3, Frederick 2, Winfree 2.
|
SAVANNAH HIGH 61, SCREVEN COUNTY 47 |
|||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | F | |
| SAVANNAH HIGH | 6 | 22 | 17 | 16 | 61 |
| BRYAN CO. | 12 | 9 | 12 | 14 | 47 |
Records—Savannah High 4-1, 2-0 Region 3-A D2; Bryan County 3-2, 2-2 region.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
BRYAN COUNTY 46, SAVANNAH HIGH 24
Bryan County girls basketball coach Mario Mincey had a mental checklist of things to watch for when his squad returned to the court after their first regular-season loss in over 11 months.
The Redskins fell to a hot-shooting, long-bombing Metter squad 68-63 on Tuesday.
“I just wanted to see if we would come back and bounce back a little bit. They’re still a little bit stung about the Metter loss,” Mincey said.
Bryan County, which advanced to the Class A D-I quarterfinals in 2023-24, rebounded on Friday with its sixth win in seven outings this season and 3-1 in the region.
Savannah High (2-3, 0-2 region) failed to score in double figures in any single quarter but hung around through the first half, when it trailed 16-9. Mincey said it was important that his team not let the Blue Jackets get hot on offense and build momentum.
The Redskins took the opportunity to mix up their starting lineup and get a lot of players into game action.
“I wanted to play a lot of kids in different moments, different situations,” Mincey said. “When you play kids that are playing JV and give them an opportunity, it’s going to look a little ragged. But I’ve got to build some depth.
“Just playing different groups of kids to see how it goes,” he added.
Five different Redskins scored in the first half, including standouts Jasmine Mikell at point guard and Ashanti Brown at forward.
Brown, who entered as the squad’s leading scorer (17.5 points per game) and rebounder (9.0), became more of an inside force in the second half, when she scored 14 of her game-high 18 points.
PHOTO: BRYAN COUNTY'S ASHANTI BROWN (#13) PLAYING DEFENSE- RDP PRODUCTIONS
“Just let the game come to her,” Mincey said he told the 5-foot-8 senior. “That’s just letting everybody else do what they do, and if it comes down to it, she’ll be a little bit more assertive, and we’ll just roll like that.”
Bryan County rolled to a 16-6 third quarter for a 32-15 advantage. After the Blue Jackets’ Christiana Roberts banked in a shot in the fourth quarter’s first minute, the Redskins went on a 9-0 run.
Soniya Whitaker sank one of two free throws, and Mikell made a steal and layup. Then Brown took over with a putback of an offensive rebound, a power move to the hoop for another score and a short jumper in the lane for a 41-19 advantage with three minutes left in regulation.
Savannah High was led by senior guard KeShauna Gusby with 12 points.
BRYAN COUNTY 46, SAVANNAH HIGH 24
SAVANNAH HIGH (24)
KeShauna Gusby 12, Johnson 2, Magwood 2, Goodwin 5, Hodges 1, Roberts 2.
BRYAN COUNTY (46)
Mikell 8, Sehr 5, Ashanti Brown 18, Harvey 5, Mincey 2, So. Whitaker 5, King 3.
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BRYAN COUNTY 46, SAVANNAH HIGH 24 |
|||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | F | |
| SAVANNAH HIGH | 5 | 4 | 6 | 9 | 24 |
| BRYAN CO. | 9 | 7 | 16 | 14 | 46 |
Records—Savannah High 2-3, 0-2 Region 3-A D2; Bryan County 6-1, 3-1 region
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy RDP Productions LLC - Kyunnie Shuman
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