The Southeast Bulloch Yellow Jackets hosted the Effingham County Rebels in the first game of the new season on Tuesday, November 19th. The Yellow Jackets fell behind early and were not able to pull of a comeback on their way to a 59-35 loss.
Things got out of hands for Southeast Bulloch at the end of the first quarter. The game was going the Yellow Jackets' way up until about 3 minutes left in the opening period when the Rebels went on a 15-0 run to take a 18-7 lead into the 2nd. Turnovers leading to easy fastbreak baskets dug an even deeper hole for SEB in the 2nd quarter. The Rebels did a great job of speeding up what the Yellow Jackets wanted to do and put immense pressure on the ball handlers.
Another 18-1 run by Effingham in the 2nd quarter put them up by 23 going into the break. SEB Head Coach Tony Raymond talked about the first half and his message to the team during halftime. "We just wanted some guys that were going to be battle tested and told them to just chip way," Raymond said.
The second half looked a lot better for the Yellow Jackets. They did not get the outcome they wanted, but the score differential was only 1 point. The offense figured out way to get some easy looks, and they were able to capitalize better than they did in the first half. Defensively, without giving up as many run out layups, they didn't allow as many points to the Rebels.
Coach Raymond said it is tough to win when you spot the other team a half.
The youth of the team played a factor in the rough start to the game. "We returned 1 starter and a lot of the guys that came back are young and inexperienced," Raymond said. "It is just some growing pains that we are going to go through right now, but hats off to Effingham. Their defensive pressure kind of caused some chaos and made us speed up more than we wanted to."
Haiden Faircloth paced SEB in scoring with 14 points in the game. Senior Ash Collins poured in 11 of his own. For Effingham, it was a balanced attack. Anthony Davis led the team in scoring with 11 and Isaiah Scrugg followed up with 10 points.
Up Next:
The Yellow Jackets will face the Portal Panthers on the road for a county matchup on Saturday. The game will tip off at 2:30pm.
