The Statesboro Blue Devils and Bulloch Academy Gators rarely get together on the hardwood, but Friday night was an exception as the gators took part in the Blue Devil’s Gentlemen’s Classic. The Blue Devils jumped out to an early lead and never looked back as they pounded the Gators 75-35.

Both teams came in missing key players and the Gators dressed only eight players. Bulloch Academy came in with a record of 4-4 and had had a lot of success running the ball down the court. The Blue Devils stifling defense made that difficult and jumped out to an 18-10 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Things only got worse from there as Statesboro outscored the Gators 24-7 in the second quarter to extend their lead to 42-17 at the half. The second half was more of the same as Statesboro got plenty of their underclassmen in the game and still extended their lead.

Blue Devil head coach Keith LeGree felt it was important to try and get as many teams close in proximately to the Statesboro area to come be a part of their holiday tournament.

“The plan of this game was to try and work on ourselves and get better,” LeGree said. “Trying to carry what we learn in practice and take it to a game situation. I felt like we played good defensively and got into our transition game to try and wear them down by the second half.”

“The way you keep building a program is developing the younger guys,” LeGree added. “Whenever we can get those guys valuable varsity experience it is so crucial to their development. They work so hard in practice and it’s nice for their families to get a chance to see what they can do.”

For Bulloch Academy head coach Zach Brackett Friday was a chance to play a team that would point out areas that are weaknesses and give them time to try and work on things before getting into their region schedule.

“We were excited about getting a chance to play a team like Statesboro and we hope to try and continue playing in the future, especially with a full roster,” Brackett said. “We struggled hitting the outside shot and controlling tempo, but we have been a little bit better at that up until this point. We have to get a little better on the glass and conditioning as we like to get up and down the floor.”

Bulloch Academy takes on Jenkins County Saturday at 5:00 at Statesboro High followed by Statesboro and Portal at 6:30.

In other action from the Gentlemen’s Classic the Jenkins County beat Swainsboro 62-47 and the Portal Panthers lost a heartbreaker to Appling County 52-50 as the Panthers missed a shot at the buzzer which could have sent the game into overtime. Portal falls to 5-5 overall and will take on Statesboro in round two of the Gentlemen’s Classic Saturday at 6:30.