Brantley County’s Herons split a pair of non-region road matchups heading into the Christmas Break falling at Wayne County and beating Pierce County.
The Herons (3-5) fell short Tuesday, December 16 in their upset bid of the Class 4A of the Yellow Jackets (8-3) falling 5445. Wayne County, who won its fifth consecutive game, rolled to a 63-39 decision in the first meeting in Caney Bay.
Brantley County won for the second time in three games taking down PCHS 59-46 Friday, December 19, handing the Bears a three-game losing streak entering the Christmas break.
BCHS is off until Tuesday, December 30 when Appling County comes calling.
Wayne County ...............54 Herons ..........................45
JESUP — The Yellow Jackets outpointed Brantley County 3120 over the final 16 minutes overcoming a two-point halftime deficit to get the win.
BCHS bolted out to a 16-12 first quarter lead. Wayne County sliced the deficit in half outscoring the Herons 11-9 in the second stanza closing the deficit to 25-23 at intermission.
The Yellow Jackets exploded in the third period to take control outscoring Brantley County 21-9 to open up a 10-point lead at 44-34. BCHS finished the game outpointing Wayne County 11-10.
Jayden Simmons (trey) led the Herons scoring 12 of his 16 points in the first half. Hayze Evans (two treys) followed wight eight points.
Tristian Dyess and Cole Courson netted six points apiece. Holton DePratter and Nathan Howell (trey) chipped in four and three points respectively. Kent Thomas bagged two points. The Yellow Jackets got a game-high 21 points from Ralph Doomes with 19 points over the middle two periods. Dwayne Smith contributed 15 points.
Herons ..........................59 Pierce County................46
BEARVILLE — Visiting Brantley County scored the first nine points of the game and was never headed in beating the Bears.
The Herons scored 15 of the first 17 points in claiming a 15-6 lead at the end of the opening period. Brantley County connected on five shots from behind the arc with four coming in the last two minutes of half fueling a 21-13 scoring advantage and a 36-19 halftime lead.
PCHS chipped one point off the deficit in the third quarter outscoring the Herons 14-13 to trail 49-33 with eight minutes to play. The Bears cut three points off the margin in the final stanza outscoring BCHS 13-10 for the final margin.
Strickland was the lone scorer in double figures for PCHS finishing with 12 points. Brown and Armstrong (trey) were next with nine points apiece.
McGauley (trey) and Williams followed with seven points and six points respectively. D.J. Moody added three points.
Brantley County was paced by the game-high 19 points of Cole Courson. Jayden Simmons (trey) and Tristan Dyess (two threes) netted 13 points and 12 points respectively.
Kent Thomas (trey) followed with five points. Jayden Bryon and Hayze Evans each connected from long distance scoring three points apiece. Nathan Howell and Holten DePratter each bucketed two points.
