By Brandon O’Connor

Reporter

The Bearcats lost to Early County 85-62 in Blakely on Tuesday and fell to Brunswick 59-41 on Thursday in the first of three games at the McDonalds Tournament in Tifton.

The game on Tuesday was the third time that the Bearcats (2-8) have face Early County this season including the teams’ preseason scrimmage. The Bobcats took a lead  in the game early on with a 24-12 advantage in the first quarter.

“Mentally we were not ready to play and that was my fault,” head coach Terry Smith said. “We are out of school and typically when we are out of school, I get them up in the morning and we have little walkthrough shoot around and we didn’t have that.”

Early would never relinquish its lead as the Bobcats outscored Bainbridge in each of the four quarter to pull away for a 23-point victory.

“The first two times were pretty much lead the whole way until late in the fourth quarter,” Smith said. “They just hit us in the mouth early and we just never really recovered. It was one of those games that we really didn’t do much right.”

On Thursday, Bainbridge traveled to Tifton to play against Brunswick.

“On paper, Brunswick was probably 30 points better than we were,” Smith said. “The kids took that as a challenge.”

Bainbridge was able to hang with Brunswick, one of the top teams in AAAAA, for the first half only trailing 30-28 at halftime.

“The first half, every play we ran we pretty much executed and scored on,” Smith said. “Now they are beginning to trust the offensive system. Just run what is called. Just executing and you’re going to get a great shot.”

Bainbridge couldn’t stay close in the second half though as Brunswick pulled away to win by 18.