The Statesboro Blue Devils took on Coffee County Trojans at home Tuesday night and swept with big region wins. The Lady Blue Devils won their matchup in a dominant 67-44 win, and the Blue Devils won their matchup in a nailbiting 49-47 win.
The Girls Win Was An All-Around Team Effort
This game for the Lady Blue Devils was a huge bounce back from their Ware game this past Saturday. At Ware the Lady Blue Devils couldn’t seem to buy a shot, but Tuesday night’s game against the Coffee County Trojans it was raining buckets from the Lady Blue Devils.
The Lady Blue Devils played to their strengths in this game and it showed as they just ran away with this game early in the fourth. Senior Alyssa Staten had some tough and-1s and Sophomore Maggie O’Neil had herself a night scoring five threes, making 3 in a row in the third. She was so hot her team had to fan her off in the team huddle.
When these girls play like that, they show why they should be the number one team in their region and a top five team in the state. Head coach Marty Holder couldn’t have been more proud of his team in Tuesday night’s win.
“Our team really bounced back from that Ware game,” Holder said. “A lot of the things that we practiced we actually did tonight and I think we had a complete game. Everybody came in the game and they played tonight. They played with their hearts tonight.”
Leading scorer for the Lady Blue Devils was senior Alyssa Staten with 19 points. That performance was followed by Sophomore Maggie O’Neil with 16 points on the night. Reya Johnson and Gerziya Haggray both had 12 points, Mikiyah Strickland, Shanaria White, Lindsay Johnson and Demia Hartwell all added two points to the scoreboard.
The Boys Kept It Close, But Pulled Out The Win
The boys varsity game was a little different than the girls. Instead of capitalizing off the intensity and momentum the girls had, the boys started out slow. They let the Trojans jump out to a 10-4 lead on them until they started making some noise and brought it back to a game.
At halftime, the Blue Devils were down 25-20, but they came into the third quarter playing like they should have in the first. They fought back and took a commanding 39-30 lead by the start of the fourth. The Blue Devils were outscored 14-10, but were able to hold on to their lead with two missed free throws by the Torjans with less than a second left in the game.
Head coach Keith LeGree talked about what his team needs to do this late in the season to be better and keep their focus coming into the depth of region play this late in the season.
“If you don’t meet force with force, play tough and match their intensity, they’ll beat you”, LeGree said. “It’s no easy game in region time. Everybody knows you and they know your stuff, and those teams like Ware and Coffee County they just play hard as crap so if you don’t be ready to meet the passes and meet that physicality they’ll beat you.”
Leading scorer for the Blue Devils was Junior DJ Brown with 14 points. That performance was followed up by senior Kam Mikell with 13 points. Raylin Grant and Camdyn Wilkerson had eight points. Devin Mikell, Mike Goodman and AK Watkins all had two points to add to the scoreboard.
Honorable mention on the night was senior Reya Johnson who was celebrated by family, coaches, teammates and fans for making her 1,000th point. Johnson has been a three year starter for the Blue Devils and in their game Saturday night against Ware County Johnson scored 15 points which pushed her over the 1,000 point threshold.
Up Next:
The Blue Devils will be back in action Saturday night as they travel to Swainsboro to take on the Tigers in what could be considered “Battle of the Boro Part Two”. The last time these two teams played, the Blue Devils swept in a dominating fashion, but the tale is as old as time, and this rivalry is out to draw fresh blood. The Varsity Girls will play at five and the Varsity Boys will follow immediately after at 6:30 p.m.