Statesboro puts an end to Lady Wolfpack win streak

Greenbrier High School's girls basketball team survived a scare the first time it played Statesboro this season. The Lady Wolfpack wasn't so lucky Tuesday.

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Statesboro turned in a big third quarter to pull away from Greenbrier, and the Lady Wolfpack's streak of regular season wins ended at 49.

"I think ever since we beat them, they had us circled on the refrigerator," said Greenbrier coach Garrett Black, a day after his team's 50-35 loss at Statesboro.

The Blue Devils led by 15 with a quarter remaining when the teams met on Jan. 4. But the Lady Wolfpack scored 25 points during the final eight minutes to win by a point and keep the streak going. The Blue Devils turned the game around Tuesday, outscoring the Wolfpack 19-4 during the third and holding on from there.

Instead of another perfect regular season, winning the remainder will likely only ensure the Lady Wolfpack a coin flip with Statesboro to decide the No. 1 seed in next month's Region 3-AAAA tournament.

"We're going to come out and play hard against everybody," Statesboro coach Jeff Seier said. "We felt like we let one slip away when we played out there."

The regular-season loss was Greenbrier's first since the 2005-06 season. The Lady Wolpack won their final two games that year to start the streak.

A perfect 2006-07 regular season and 21 games into this one, the run ended.

Black said his team went cold shooting during the second half and credited Statesboro's defense.

"We finally took one on the chin," he said.

Evans drops region game

Three consecutive region wins had Evans High School's boys in position to try for a top-2 finish in Region 3-AAAA.

Tuesday's 76-71 loss to Richmond Academy, though, means the Knights will likely enter the region tournament as a No. 3 seed.

"We're still in decent shape," Evans coach Kevin Kenny said.

The Knights dropped their first meeting with ARC after two overtimes. Wins against Statesboro, Lakeside and Greenbrier prepped the Knights for Tuesday's rematch.

Evans came back from a 16-point second-quarter deficit to grab its first lead in the fourth quarter. But two late plays from the Musketeers handed the Knights another loss.

First, after the Musketeers grabbed a 1-point lead late in the fourth, an ARC defender forced a jump ball in the post with Knights forward Jonathan Nicely.

The possession arrow pointed to ARC.

Musketeers guard Desmond Lofland then drove an open lane, drawing a foul and making the lay-up.

ARC can secure a No. 1 seed in the region if it wins its remaining games.