From start to finish, Statesboro was a heavy favorite to win its new region.
    While they aren’t quite there yet, the Blue Devils took the next step to sealing the deal by defeating New Hampstead 65-54 Friday night to win the regular season crown and secure the No. 1 seed in the upcoming region tournament.
    “This is the time we need to be playing well, and I think this is our best basketball,” said head coach Lee Hill. “We’re proud of the way these guys have bounced back.”
    It’s a far cry from how things started out for Statesboro. The season began with the team plagued by injury, with stars Tray Burns, Daniel Cooper and Cam Harvey all out leaving Statesboro to take an early season tumble.
    The Blue Devils started out 1-6 due to those injuries, but have since gone 15-3 with a healthy rotation. Those seven games weren’t all lost according to Hill, because guys like Tyler Goodman started key varsity minutes and became conditioned to playing crunch-time ball.
    “He was thrown in the fire being the only point guard with Cooper and Burns out,” Hill said. “He’s now someone I feel comfortable coming in and playing crucial minutes for us.”
    Goodman would wind up with nine points on 3-of-4 shooting on the night, just two less than the final deficit. However this New Hampstead team was no pushover, falling by a mere point in Pooler back on Jan. 17. The Phoenix never made it easy, starting from the opening tip.
    The first quarter saw seven lead changes, with New Hampstead holding the lead for the first five minutes. Cooper finally tied things up with a three off a Burns pass, then the two sides traded buckets for the next three minutes before Goodman knocked down a three to give Statesboro a 14-12 lead going into the second quarter.
    It was then Statesboro hit an 11-2 run coming out of the gates in the second quarter, courtesy of five point by Marcus Kirkland. Down 25-14, New Hampstead would come back to whittle things down with a 9-4 run of their own off six points from Amare Green.
    “That was the best team we’ve played all year,” Harvey said. “They’ll give us another good shot at the region tournament, so our defense is going to have to be ready.”
    At halftime Statesboro led 29-23, but New Hampstead continued to chip away at their lead. With buckets from all five of their starting players, the Phoenix brought the Statesboro lead to two points at 35-33 at the 4:20 mark -- beating Statesboro’s 3-for-6 shooting mark with a 4-for-6 clip.
    It was then Harvey — on his senior night — who started to take over on offense. Statesboro finished out the quarter on a 12-2 run with Harvey scoring the final six points on three consecutive shots.
    From that point on New Hampstead couldn’t get within more than ten points of the Blue Devils, as Statesboro would cap the evening on 4-of-6 shooting and hitting ten of their 12 fouls shots down the stretch.
    “This is where we’ve wanted to be in the end,” Hill said. “It’s become more apparent we played a tough schedule this year and it’s paying off right now.”
    Harvey would lead all scorers with 16 points, followed by Cooper with 13, Burns with 11 and Jordan Wright with ten. Burns had a particularly nice night stuffing the stat sheet, adding eight rebounds and five assists.
    Now looking ahead to the region tournament, Statesboro will play the winner of South Effingham and Wayne County on Thursday at Wayne County, with a time yet to be determined.

Lady Devils 61, New Hampstead 25

    The Statesboro ladies capped their regular season run with a 61-25 win over New Hampstead Friday, giving Jeff Seier his best regular season finish since 2013.
    The finish to the season came rather anticlimactically since New Hampstead was a 3-20 team coming to Friday’s game. Regular starters like Lacy Robins and Keisonna Rollins didn’t start to begin the game as the Lady Blue Devils had their sights set on the region tournament coming up next week.
    “While it wasn’t close it was nice to get some of the younger kids in,” said head coach Jeff Seier. “It’s good to get them some action as we head into the postseason.”
    It seemed apparent after the ladies may have been looking ahead halfway through the second quarter. After hitting a 10-0 run in the first four minutes of the first quarter, New Hampstead closed out the quarter on a 9-3 run — with Statesboro shooting just 1-8 from the field during the Phoenix run.
    New Hampstead would trail only 13-9 going into the second quarter, but their run would be shut down swiftly by a Statesboro team who’d suddenly woken up. Carried by 11 points on 4-for-6 shooting by Lacy Robins in her rare off-the-bench role, Statesboro orchestrated a 21-6 second quarter where they held the Phoenix to 3-of-15 shooting from the field with six turnovers.
    “We’ll need Lacy and Amber (Robins) both hitting their shots coming up these next two weeks,” Seier said. “That’s when things really start to matter.”
    By halftime the Statesboro lead had grown to 34-15, then the third quarter saw the lead avalanche into a 53-17 lead by the beginning of the fourth quarter. Lacy Robins added another nine points in the 19-2 quarter by the Lady Blue Devils. New Hampstead’s only basket came via Elaina Fears, who finished with a team high eight points.
    Following their first quarter shooting performance of 27.2 percent (3-of-11), New Hampstead proceeded to shoot 17.6 percent (6-of-34) for the rest of the game — never able to figure out how to get passed the length of Statesboro’s front court.
    However the real key to Statesboro’s domination was their ability to convert turnovers into points. Both teams were near even in turnovers (17-14), the Blue Devils scored 25 points of Phoenix giveaways, while New Hampstead only managed five.
    “The better teams normally don’t let us get away with that much scoring or steals,” Seier said. “Our focus needs to be limiting our turnovers first.”
    Lacy Robins’ 20 points — 15 off turnovers — led Statesboro with five steals to boot. Molly Mikell added 12 points while Amber Robins fell in third with eight.
    Statesboro cements itself as the No. 3-seed in the region tournament at Wayne County, where they’ll play Ware County for the chance to host a state playoff game. Tip off for their game will be Thursday at 3:30 p.m.