The Manchester Blue Devils will take on the Portal Panthers in a holiday battle at 2:30 p.m. on Friday at. Hopefully Manchester focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 11 on Tuesday.
Last Tuesday, Manchester earned a 47-36 victory over Chattahoochee County. The victory made it back-to-back wins for Manchester.
Manchester can attribute much of their success to Daryus Bryant, who dropped a double-double on 16 points and 19 rebounds. The team also got some help courtesy of Dre McGhee, who scored nine points.
Meanwhile, Portal put another one in the bag on Friday to keep their perfect season alive. They pulled ahead with a 51-50 photo finish over Bryan County. Given Portal's advantage in MaxPreps' Georgia basketball rankings (they are ranked 17th, while Bryan County is ranked 165th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Elijah Coleman was his usual excellent self, scoring 19 points along with eight rebounds and four steals. That's the first time this season that he pulled down eight or more rebounds. Another player making a difference was Amir Jackson, who scored five points along with 11 rebounds and four steals.
Manchester's win bumped their record up to 2-0. As for Portal, they pushed their record up to 8-0 with that victory, which was their 14th straight on the road dating back to last season.