To say that Orangeburg-Wilkinson Bruinette Coach Lyman Foster found himself enveloped by the surreal Tuesday night at the Bruins' Den would be an overstatement of the obvious.

Two months ago Foster was coaching the team that he now faced as an adversary on the opposite side of the scorers' table in the Holly Hill-Roberts Lady Bulldogs, following the unexpected death of Bruinette coaching legend Edward "Butchie" Pellman.

But while the coaches were different, with Herman Jenkins taking over at Holly Hill-Roberts for Foster, the end result was much the same as the second-ranked Bruinettes utilized their distinct size advantage down low with top seniors Nicole Pittman and Jayshaun Bailey and the team's stifling match-up zone defense to rout the Lady Bulldogs 63-25 in front of a lively crowd.

For his part, Foster is just glad that the game is over. He still cares very much for the girls in the opposite uniforms just as much as he did two months ago. The Lady Bulldogs were his family. But he says that he has a new family now.

"It's difficult, I'll put it that way, because I still love those girls over there as though they were my family," Foster said. "I have a new family now so I have to go with my new family. (Holly Hill-Roberts) was a little short-handed tonight and we were taller than they were so we tried to capitalize on that. They have good shooters and we tried to keep pressure on them so that they didn't get any open shots."

The Bruinettes improve to 2-0 with the win, while the Lady Bulldogs fall to 2-1 overall. Bailey led O-W with a game-high 22 points and 16 rebounds, while Pittman tossed in 14 points with 12 rebounds and five blocked shots. Shelby Pauling also scored nine exciting points on acrobatic layups for the Bruinettes in the second half.

Dalia Dantzler led the Lady Bulldogs with a team-high eight points, followed by South Carolina State signee Victoria Blanchard and Robin White with six points each.

O-W's pressure defense created 27 turnovers in the game and held the Lady Bulldogs scoreless until there was just 5:05 left on the clock in the second quarter. A Robin White layup ended the scoring drought, but by that time the Bruinettes had already charged out to a commanding lead of 21 points. That margin then swelled to 39 points with a 52-13 score at halftime after the Bruinettes closed out the second quarter with a 18-0 run.

Lady Bulldogs' Coach Herman Jenkins said he hopes to offer the Bruinettes a better game when the two teams meet again in Holly Hill at "The Pound" on Friday, Jan. 9.

"We were never able to get things going tonight," Jenkins said. "We never got things cranked up and hopefully when they come back to Holly Hill they'll see a different ball club. This is in the past now. We have to move on and prepare for Cross Saturday. We're going to use the bitterness of defeat as motivation for us to do well. They got going and we suffered the consequences of it."

When asked whether there was a girls' team in the state that runs the match-up zone any better than do the Bruinettes, Foster's reply was an understandable one.

"I hope not," Foster said. "I wasn't going to change a lot, and I remembered Coach Pellman put that same matchup zone on me when they came to Holly Hill last year and I liked it then I just didn't have the personnel to implement it. But now, with our speed we have here and with Nicole and Jayshaun jumping out of the gym it makes it much easier. We're fortunate to have the personnel to play that type of pressure. We did make some turnovers tonight that we need to cut out."

The boys' side of Tuesday's "County Clash" featured a much closer affair as the sixth-ranked Bruins needed a pair of free throws from senior swingman Zachary Barron to hold off a late Holly Hill-Roberts' charge to improve to 2-0 on the season with a hotly contested 51-48 home victory.

Coach Alex Barron's Bruins led by as many as 10 points with just 3:51 remaining in the defensive-minded and foul-plagued contest, but the Bulldogs -- who had beaten the Bruins in the championship game of the Orangeburg County Summer League -- chipped away at the lead until the Bulldogs were within six points at 49-43 following a missed free throw by Floyd Haigler.

Lional Gilliard then drove down and nailed a long jumper to make the score 49-45 with four seconds on the clock. O-W's Kwame Kakue missed the front end of a one-and-one opportunity and Marvin Wright came right back with a huge leaning three-pointer that made the score 49-48 with four seconds left in the game as the capacity crowd went wild with euphoria and disappointment (depending on which team they were pulling for) after the big bucket.

But Barron's free throws sealed the deal as O'Tey Sellers' heave from half court fell short of its mark.

The Bruins were led by forward Johnny Jackson's 14 points, with Barron also scoring 14 points. Bruin guard Rob Fields added eight points and Marcus Felder had five points. Center Kendrick Johnson played a great all around game with four points, 13 rebounds and six blocked shots.

Holly Hill-Roberts (2-1) was led in the game by Sellers' team-high 14 points. Gilliard added nine points for the Bulldogs, while Wright chipped in six points.

Orangeburg-Wilkinson plays at Colleton County this Friday, Dec. 12, before playing host to Beaufort on Saturday, Dec, 13. Holly Hill-Roberts plays at Cross on Saturday.

T&D Region Sports Writer Mike Rosier can be reached by e-mail at mrosier@timesanddemocrat.com or by office phone at 803-533-5529.

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