BROOKLET — Statesboro’s boys continued their successful run with a healthy roster by beating cross-county rival Southeast Bulloch 66-52 Tuesday night.
    A Gentleman’s Classic hangover set in early for Blue Devils, as SEB came firing hard out of the gate despite being out two of their better players in Jontrell Wells and Dre Harrison.
    The Yellow Jackets got an opening possession bucket in the post from Caleb Carter, but was answered quickly off a putback by Cam Harvey. However SEB would follow with a three-pointer by Jalen Scott.
    Statesboro would miss their next three baskets and commit an offensive foul on their next four possessions, while SEB got another three from Desean Taylor to go up 8-2.
    “I’ll say we did start off a little sluggish,” said Statesboro head coach Lee Hill. “We started playing better defense once we got down like we did.”
    However a technical foul on Taylor for clapping in the direction of an opponent following his three gave Cam Harvey two free throws to make the score 8-4 SEB.
    The following possession Tyler Goodman missed a three, but came back following an SEB offensive foul to make his first of the game to cut the deficit to one. Following another charge by SEB Daniel Cooper came down the floor and hit another three off a Tray Harrison assist to take the lead.
    Taylor responded on the other end of the floor with another three to give SEB back the lead, but Cooper would respond off a Yellow Jacket turnover with another triple to give Statesboro the lead for good at 13-11 with 1:36 left in the first quarter.
    “I told them we couldn’t get in a track meet with these guys,” said SEB head coach John Page. “We can’t run up and down with these guys.”
    In between the second and third quarter Statesboro outscored SEB 33-19, all the while the Blue Devils shot 11-of-24 from the field and 9-of-12 from the free throw line. With posts Scott and Carter in foul trouble for a large portion of the game, Statesboro was able to attack the paint with ease and kick out for open threes.
    Even though SEB outscored Statesboro 22-16 in the fourth quarter, it wasn’t enough to make up the 50-30 deficit coming out of the third quarter.
    Harvey led Statesboro with 17 points and eight boards, while Jordan Wright followed with 13, Goodman with 12 and Cooper with 10. Statesboro shot 40 percent from three (6-of-15) as a team.
    “Shooting threes is a great part of our offense, especially now that we’re healthy again,” Hill said.
    Pierless Brown scored 14 for SEB, with Desean Taylor chipping in 13. SEB gave up 27 points off 18 turnovers as a team.
    Statesboro (7-6) opens region play Friday with Wayne County while SEB (3-10) hosts Savannah — both at 7:30 p.m.

Lady Blue Devils rout Lady Jackets
    After winning two games in a row SEB couldn’t make it three via an impressive defensive effort from Statesboro in a 60-23 win for the Lady Blue Devils.
    SEB couldn’t escape the lengthy 2-3 zone of their opposition, even while bringing the ball up the court better than they have in recent games. 33 of Statesboro’s points came off turnovers, 32 total for SEB on the night.
    “We run a 2-3 zone, so we shouldn’t have that much trouble with it,” said SEB head coach Kristen Barnhill. “We had tightened up our turnovers the past two games but it just came undone tonight.”
    The Lady Jackets did have a small run early in the first quarter after being run 7-0 in the first three and a half minutes of the game. Aaliyah Sandifer finally came through with a jumper at the 4:27 mark to put SEB on the board after missing their first four shots.
    Jayden Smith followed with a bucket on the next possession following a Statesboro miss to make it 7-4, then the two sides would trade free throws to make it 8-5 — the smallest margin of the game before Statesboro would seize control.
    Molly Mikell and Krystyn Turner would trade buckets to make it 10-7 — still a three point margin — before the Lady Blue Devils ended the quarter on a 4-0 run while aided by four consecutive SEB turnovers following Turner’s basket off the bench.
    “Towards the end of the game we had starting to get our rotations on defense right,” said Statesboro head coach Jeff Seier. “But we can’t control whether or not the other team shoots well.”
    Right out of the gates in the second quarter Dayonna Henry and Lacy Robins would force steals on SEB’s first two possessions and take them the length of the court for layups to make it a 18-7 game.
    From there, Statesboro went on a 15-3 run in the final seven minutes of the first half, all the while SEB would shoot 0-for-10 from the field with seven turnovers.
    Statesboro would finish the game on a 27-13 run following that aforementioned mark, giving them their eighth win of the year to put the Lady Blue Devils at 8-5 before they face Wayne County (8-2) on Friday at 6:00 p.m.
    “I’d rather not play this kind of game before we have to face a team like Wayne County,” Seier said. “We could get too loose and lose our sense of urgency.”
    Amber Robins and Dayonna Henry led the way for Statesboro with 11 points each, while Lacy Robins chipped in ten points and six steals. For SEB Robertson had seven points, seven rebounds and two steals.
    SEB (3-7) will have to regroup before a big region game Friday against Savannah (5-10) to decide who would be fourth in region 3-AAA moving forward.

    Chris Stanley may be reached at (912) 489-9408.