By Donald Heath
Special for the Effingham Herald
SPRINGFIELD – The drive toward the elite in Region 2-6A needs just a little more fuel in Effingham County’s gas tank, says boys basketball coach Tramaine Aaron.
“We started the season coming out on E,” Aaron said. “We got to about half a tank, now it’s three quarters of a tank. We have to go fill it up.”
Three quarters weren’t enough for the Rebels on Saturday night against much-improved Glynn Academy.
ECHS fell behind early and couldn’t contain the Red Terrors’ 3-point shooting during a 69-59 loss.
It was a stinging weekend for the Rebels, who also lost at Grovetown 56-49 on Friday night.
Grovetown and Glynn are 1-2 in the seven-team region standings. Grovetown is 4-0. And after finishing 12-14 a year ago and failing to make the state playoffs, Glynn is off to a 15-3 overall record, 4-1 in region play.
ECHS dropped to 6-8 overall, 1-2 in the region.
“I expect every night in the region to be (a tough fight),” Aaron said. “Obviously, Glynn is a good team. They do what they do well. I don’t think our defense reacted as quickly as we needed to and they hit shots.”
The Rebels trailed early on, but knotted the game at 18 and 23 in the second quarter before the Red Terrors finished the half on a 7-2 run and began the third quarter with six straight points to extend their lead to 11, 36-25.
ECHS still trailed by 11, 46-35, during the final three minutes of the quarter before its full-court press defense forced turnovers and produced eight straight points to make it 46-43.
But guard Jayden Ellis, the quarterback on Glynn’s football team, sank a 3-pointer to quiet the uprising and begin a Terror 13-3 run to put the game out of reach.
Ellis made six of the team’s 10 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 27 points, 20 points (5 3-pointers) coming in the second half.
“I told the team, we have to start hanging our hats on defense and believing we can defend for four quarters,” Aaron said. “We’re about three quarters there. We started to cut the deficit, but it was too little too late.”
Jordan Goldwire led ECHS with 17 points. Jeremiah “Paco” Lee added 10.
The Rebels will be back in action on Jan. 15 at home against Brunswick before playing county rival South Effingham on Friday night in Guyton.
ECHS’ boys' and girls’ games with Lakeside Evans on Jan. 9 were rescheduled for Feb. 6 after bad weather forced school closings.
Elsewhere in local basketball …
South Effingham’s girls scored a season-high 70 points in a 70-30 victory over Evans on Jan. 13. The Mustangs raised their record to 5-11, 2-1 in region play.
The Effingham County girls (4-10) slipped to 0-3 in region play after losses to Grovetown (42-29) and Glynn Academy (53-38).
The Rebels play Brunswick and South Effingham during the upcoming week.
The SEHS boys dropped their 12th straight game in a 83-53 defeat at Evans.
