Southeast Bulloch split a pair of games Saturday night at home against Bulloch Academy. The Yellow Jacket boys avenged a loss from earlier this month with an impressive 74-43 win over the Gators, while Bulloch Academy’s girls came out on top 71-41.
The Jackets were led by Brendan O’Dowd with 29 points while Zach Wells added 13 and Christian Linen had 11 points. The Jackets then went on to knock off Burke County Tuesday 69-62 to improve to 9-7 overall and 1-2 in region play. Zach Wells led the way with 28 points while O’Dowd added 15 points.
Up next, the Jackets are home Friday night against Wayne County with the girls starting things off at 6 p.m.
The Bulloch Academy Lady Gators are in the midst of a five-game winning streak as they beat SEB and then went on to knock off St. Andrew's Tuesday on the road by a count of 46-30. Ashantay Noble led the way against St. Andrew's with 13 points.
Next up for the Gators is a trip to Frederica Friday night, with the girls tipping off at 6 p.m. and the boys game following.
The Portal Panthers took a pair of region wins from the visiting McIntosh County Academy Buccaneers with the boys winning 57-44 and the girls coming out on top 48-36.
The Portal boys have a top-10 showdown Friday in Millen against Jenkins County, but didn’t overlook a solid MCA team Tuesday night. The Panthers jumped out to a quick start taking a 21-14 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Panthers struggled a bit from the floor in the second quarter, but turned things up defensively as they held MCA to just two points as they took a 31-16 lead into halftime.
The Buccaneers' Brandon Johnson caught fire in the third quarter, scoring 12 of his 24 points, but the Panthers' post presence continued as Amir Jackson and K.J. Hunter combined for 14 points. The Panthers were able to hit 7-10 free throws in the fourth as they pulled out the victory to improve to 15-1 overall and 4-0 in region play.
“I thought defensively we played a complete game,” said Portal coach Jeff Brannen. “Offensively we did a good job getting the ball inside. Freshman K.J. Hunter had a double-double with 19 points and 12 boards in his first start and I liked how aggressive he played. With a big game coming up Friday against Jenkins County we needed to take care of business against MCA.”
For the Lady Panthers, Tuesday’s win marked the first region win in over a year. Portal jumped out to a 15-7 first quarter lead thanks in part to a pair of three pointers by Glen Lowe and seven points from Angel Cone.
The Panthers extended their lead to 27-15 at the half, Portal went up 41-27 in the third and then coasted on to the victory as they improved to 6-10 overall and 1-1 in region play. The six wins are the most since the Panthers won 10 games during the 2015-16 season.
“It was a big region win for us,” said Portal coach Nicole Newton. “We executed the game plan better in the second half by focusing on getting our post players involved in the offense and forcing turnovers on the defensive end.”
Portal was led by Angel Cone with 11 points. Raashonda Khalil had 10 points as did Glen Lowe. Next up for the Panthers is their own showdown at Jenkins County Friday slated to begin at 6 p.m. There will be no GoFan payments at the Jenkins County game and all payments will be cash only at the door.
