Wayne Grandy
The Moultrie Observer
MOULTRIE —
Rakeem Hightower sank three first-quarter 3-pointers to get the Colquitt County ninth-grade boys off to a 12-2 start and the Packers hung on to defeat Lee County 30-24 on Wednesday in its season-opener on the William Bryant Court at the Espy Gymnasium.
The victory enabled Colquitt County to gain a split after the ninth-grade Lady Packers fourth-quarter rally fell short in a 19-15 defeat.
The ninth-grade Packers also got a big game from Gabe Holston, who found ways to come up with a number of rebounds and loose balls. He also had eight points.
The Packers led 12-7 after the first quarter and extended the advantage to 20-10 at the half.
Colquitt went into the final quarter with a 26-14 lead, but the Trojans scored as many points in the final 5:49 as they did in the entire first half and cut the Packers lead to 28-24 with 21 seconds left.
But Hightower’s final basket of the night with 7.1 seconds remaining put the game out of reach.
Jaquan Blakely had five points; Quan Mathis added four; and Landon Scott had four points.
The Colquitt County girls scored just five points in the first three quarters and were on the verge of being blown out when they staged a comeback in the closing minutes.
A 10-point fourth-quarter brought the Lady Packers to within two points, before they fell 19-15.
Takerria Waters led the Colquitt County girls with six points.
Yaunna Saunders added four and Ta’Nia Johnson and Olivia Griffin each chipped in two points.
The ninth-grade teams will be back in action on Monday when they play host to Tift County.
The girls game will start at 5 p.m. The boys game will follow.
