On Saturday afternoon, the Portal Panthers welcomed the Southeast Bulloch Yellow Jackets for their first game of the new basketball season. Portal was able to ride a hot start to a big win to set the tone for a new era of Panthers basketball.
SEB was coming off of a loss to Effingham County in their first game of the season and looked to bounce back against a young Panthers group.
.
Portal ran out an almost entire new cast of guys with none of the starters from last year's team suiting up for them this season. You would not have known the inexperience on their side if you had watched the game.
Portal sprinted out to a 12-0 lead before surrendering a single point to the Yellow Jackets. Coach Jeff Brannen had his guys in a full court press from the opening tip. The guards for Portal blanketed the ball handlers of SEB and forced 8 turnovers in their run in the opening stretch of the game. The turnovers led to several fastbreak opportunities and easy buckets.
Entering the 2nd quarter down 15-4, the Yellow Jackets began to battle back. The Panthers lessened the press that they ran, and that allowed SEB to create good looks. They fed their big Ash Collins on the post and he was able to have their way. The Yellow Jackets went on a run to cut the lead down to 6 before Coach Brannen called a timeout.
Coming out of the timeout, Portal got back in their press and responded with an even larger run to extend their lead to 13 going into the half.
With the halftime score being 29-16, Portal turned their game up another notch as they scored the half's first 26 points. On top of the fastbreak opportunities, Portal freshman CJ Hardin caught fire from downtown and hit a barrage of 3s. The Yellow Jackets had a size advantage over Portal, but the active hands and fast reaction time didn't allow them to use their size.
Portal's Head Coach Jeff Brannen spoke on the play of his team in the season opener. "That's the style of play we want to play," Brannen said. "We want to press and get the ball out and get some easy baskets."
Brannen ran a lot deeper rotation that one we have seen over the past few seasons. "My guys got to get experience," Brannen said. "We lost the top 6 from the last year, so a lot of these guys haven't played many minutes."
Portal's Brian McQueen led the game in scoring with 20 points. CJ Hardin followed up with 17. Zion Lanier finished with 12. SEB's leading scorer was Ash Collins who finished with 9 points. Haiden Faircloth and Nolan Higgins each scored 8 points in the game.
Up Next:
The Panthers are back in action on Tuesday, November 26th when they take on Greenbrier in a neutral site game.
The Yellow Jackets are looking to get their first win of the season in their next game against Athens Academy at North Oconee High School in Bogart on Monday, November 25th.
