The Camden County boys are on the board in Region 1-6A.
The Wildcats turned away Tift last Friday for their first conference win (1-3) and seventh overall, then tumbled Tuesday at Brunswick. The region schedule resumes Friday at Lowndes and continues Jan. 24 at Colquitt before a Jan. 25 home clash with First Coast.
CCHS 49, Tift 44
The Wildcats hit buzzer-beaters in the first and second quarters and kept the visiting Blue Devils at arm’s length for most of the second half.
Jaylen Johnson scored a game-high 13 points for the winners alongside three rebounds, two assists and two three-pointers. Caleb Reed (10 points, two steals, two rebounds) sank two threes, the second with 50.6 seconds left that boosted a nervous one-point lead to a two-possession 47-43 score.
Also for the ’Cats, Johnathan Jones (three rebounds, two assists, three-pointer) scored nine points. Mason Aikens got all of his nine on three treys — like Reed, a big one late in the game — and handed out three assists.
CCHS led 34-29 beginning the fourth, and had an answer for every threat afterward.
A Jones basket in the lane put the ’Cats up 41-34 with about five minutes remaining. With about two-and-half minutes left, Cordell Nelson’s mammoth dunk, the second of two straight baskets for the 6-foot-8 sophomore, closed Tift within three.
Aikens’ three at 2:10 put Camden up six, but the Blue Devils didn’t go away. Kaden Lawson’s shot clanged off the iron and in, and Nick Morgan’s trey brought them within 44-43 with 1:05 remaining.
Reed connected from the left wing for three, and Johnson buried two free throws with 17.9 seconds left for insurance. Camden never trailed in the final eight minutes.
Jayden Ayala had nine rebounds, six points and a three-pointer for CCHS, and David Coleman 10 rebounds.
Nelson’s 10 points paced the Blue Devils, who also got eight from Rio Brewton, seven and two three-pointers from J.J. Lamar, and five points from Morgan.
Johnson banked in a buzzer-beating three to close a low-scoring opening quarter. The ’Cats still trailed 7-5 starting the second thanks to six Brewton points.
The visitors went ahead 20-14 as Nelson completed a three-point play and Lamar canned his second trifecta. Aikens and Jones answered with threes — Jones at the buzzer — as Camden pulled even, 20-20, by intermission.
Aikens, Ayala and Reed drilled threes in the third for a five-point edge.
The Wildcats were 6-of-12 from the foul line and the visitors 3-of-13. Tift, which had won three of its previous four games, stumbled to 9-5 overall and 0-2 in the region.
Brunswick 65, CCHS 37
The host Pirates rained down 11 three-pointers Tuesday and put three in double figures to improve to 15-1.
Reed hit two threes and scored a Camden-high 10 with two rebounds, and John Bowick (six rebounds) canned three treys for nine points. Ayala was next with seven points, five boards (three offensive) and a three-pointer, and Jones scored five with three rebounds.
For the winners, Caleb Butler canned five threes and scored a game-high 17 points, and Heze Kent was next with 13. Nasir Poole nailed three treys while scoring 12, while Joshua Daniel scored seven points and Antwone Levros six on two three-pointers.
The ’Cats also got seven rebounds from Coleman and two assists from Johnson.