SAVANNAH — The third time was not a charm for Southeast Bulloch. Rather it was a forgettable nightmare.
    Trailing by six points at the half, 25-19, the Yellow Jackets climbed to within one point of Brantley County to start the third quarter Tuesday night and then suffered a total collapse to drop a 55-40 decision to the Herons in the opening round of the Region 1-AAA tournament at Beach High School.
    “We got indecisive in what we wanted to do,” Yellow Jackets Coach John Page said. “We weren’t patient enough.”
    The Jackets had knocked off the Herons twice in the regular season to earn a No. 5 seed going into the tournament. Brantley County was the No. 9 seed, but the Herons played like the higher seed.
    Colt Yawn scored 16 points to lead the winners who also got 12 points from Derrick Bradshaw.  Cole Carter scored 14 to lead SEB while Preston Smith chipped in with 10.
    Brantley County surprised the Yellow Jackets by playing a 1-2-2 zone after playing a man-to-man defense in both earlier games. Southeast Bulloch never adjusted and led only once at 1-0.
    “The last time we played them (a 56-50 Jacket win) they shot the lights out on 3-pointers,” Heron Coach Tripp Herrin said. “Both teams are very comparable, and we felt we had to do something different so we decided to go with the zone.”
    Page acknowledged the Heron defense had an unsettling effect on his team, and that it made some poor decisions which proved to be costly.
    “We knew it was going to be a tough game,” Page said. “We led them 20-2 at our place and wound up winning by six. We didn’t do a lot to help ourselves tonight.”
    The Herons’ Tyler Chambless scored the first basket of the second half to give his team an eight point bulge, 27-19, before the Yellow Jackets put together a 7-0 run to trail by one with 5:14 left in the third quarter.
    At that point Herrin called a time out, and whatever he told his team worked wonders.
    Southeast Bulloch suddenly went cold, and over the next eight minutes played some of its worst basketball of the season.
    The Yellow Jackets did not score again until Carter made a free throw with 6:47 left in the game to snap a 12-0 Brantley County outburst.
    Smith scored on a driving layup for SEB with 4:30 to play and that ended an 8 minute, 14 second drought without a basket for the Jackets, a stretch in which they missed eight shots and committed nine turnovers.
    By the time Smith got his bucket the Herons owned a 45-29 lead, and playing out the remainder of the game was a mere formality.
    The Yellow Jackets were forced to foul in an attempt to get back in the game, and that backfired, too, as the Herons were deadly at the line.
    Brantley County made 17-of-20 free throws including a 12-for-13 run in the fourth period.
    “We practiced against it (the zone), but obviously not enough,” Page said. “Kaelin (Jones) picking up his fourth foul hurt us, too. He’s our best rebounder and with him out we couldn’t generate anything. We don’t have enough depth to make up for his absence.”
    Jones had three fouls at the half, and picked up his fourth with 2:21 to go in the third period.
    “Our plan was to go at him hard,” Herrin said of Jones. “He’s their best rebounder and getting him in foul trouble was to our advantage.”