South Effingham boys basketball coach Jason Keeler saw players on the floor in the Mustangs’ uniform. But he wondered after the game with Emanuel County Institute if his team had shown up.
The Bulldogs, who never trailed, blew out the Mustangs 51-39 Tuesday night in a non-region game. ECI took control of the game early with a 22-1 run.
“We just weren’t focused, for whatever reason,” Keeler said. “There was no desire to play basketball. We played like it was an inconvenience.
“It doesn’t get much more frustrating,” he said. “There’s no reason to work this hard in practice and miss out on the games. We approach practice like it’s work and the game is the payoff, and we don’t have that yet.”
Keeler started his three seniors — Eddie Harris, Jamaal Bynes and Brandon English — and the Mustangs trailed 4-3 before the Bulldogs, the Class A state football champs, pulled away. Dex Moody had 14 points in the second quarter alone, scoring the last basket of the first quarter and the first two baskets of the second period. He converted on offensive rebounds for four of his nine first-half field goals. In one sequence, the Bulldogs had four shots at the basket before Moody converted for a 26-4 lead.
The Mustangs had 10 points in the first half, and trailed by 22 points at intermission. At halftime, Keeler admonished his team that strategy couldn’t solve their problem. Only they could.
“They’ve got to do it,” he said. “I told them there’s no X or O I can draw to change your mental state. And they did. But it was a little too late at that point.”
The Mustangs opened the second half on an 11-2 spurt and cut the lead to 34-21. But the Bulldogs stretched the lead back to 41-23 on Patrick Branch’s basket early in the fourth and the Mustangs didn’t get the deficit under 15 points until Bynes’ 3 with 13 seconds left.
“When you are not focused, it makes it even tougher against a team like that,” Keeler said. “They (the Bulldogs) did what we try to do. They hurt us because we let them hurt us.”
Moody scored 23 points for the Bulldogs. Washaun Ealey, who set the state’s single-season touchdown record this fall, had two points. Moody and Ealey have both committed to play football for the University of Georgia.
Zach Anderson led the Mustangs with 12 points and Jaron Mullins had 11 points. Bynes finished with seven, Harris had five and Aaron Fisher and Brandon English each had two points.
