MOULTRIE —
The top four scorers on last year’s Colquitt County seventh-grade girls basketball team were sixth-graders and all returned to the team this season.
And that experience was evident on Tuesday when the Lady Packers opened the 2012-2013 season with a 35-8 victory over Lowndes at the Willie J. Williams Middle School gymnasium.
The Lowndes girls did not score in the third quarter of the game.
The Lowndes boys did not in the second and third quarters of Tuesday’s second game which was won by Colquitt County 41-14.
The seventh-grade girls led 10-2 at the end of the first quarter and 25-6 at the half.
The Lowndes second-half scoring amounted to a single basket with 20 second left in the fourth quarter, which was played under a running clock.
Abiyah Spencer led the Lady Packers with 10 points.
Za’Nautica Downs and Michaela Bennefield each had six; Kierra Lovett had five; Angel Kinchen had four; and Akia Sutton and Ty’Brea Lamar each had two.
The seventh-grade boys jumped out to an 18-9 lead at the end of the first quarter and stretched the lead 39-9 before Lowndes scored again with 3:24 left in the game.
With J.J. Peterson, who led all scorers with 10 points, the Packers were too big for Lowndes. And with Jarvis Christopher, Cameron Singletary, Tyran Shealy, Harrison Kebler, JaQuan Willis and others, they were too quick, too.
Christopher added eight points; Singletary and Willis each had six; Kebler had four; Shealy, Billy Rushing and Conner Patterson each had two; and Albert Stringer had a free throw.
The seventh-grade teams will play host to Coffee on Thursday.
At Lowndes Middle School, the Colquitt County eighth-grade girls also opened with a victory, defeating the Vikettes 15-14.
“Our team this year is mostly new faces so we saw a lot of amateur tendencies in our first game,” coach Tiffanie Young said. “I also saw some good things, but we still have a long way to go.”
Staa Johnson led the eighth-grade Lady Packers wiht 10 points; Shy Seay and Ashunte Stewart each had two points and Shanlexis Walker had a free throw.
The eighth-grade boys are off to an 0-3 start with trouble holding on to the ball hurting the team in the early going.
The eighth-grade Packers opened the season on Saturday in the Lee County Middle School Basketball Challenge and lost to Dougherty Middle School 33-14 in their first game.
D’Nas Andrews led the Packers with seven points; Tory Ponder, Tyrese King and Demiven Knighton each had two; and Allen Key had one.
It was a one-point game at the half, but in the third quarter, “the wheels came off,” coach Roger Jones.
Colquitt fell to Merry Acres Middle School 41-28 in the second game, with turnovers again playing a key role.
Dankerious DeBruce led the Packers with 13 points. Andrews added six points; King had five; Knighton added three and Ponder had a free throw.
“We played better,” Jones said.
The eighth-grade Packers fell to 0-3 on Tuesday with a 41-23 loss at Lowndes Middle School.
Colquitt got as close as six points in the second half before Lowndes pulled away.
DeBruce had eight; Andrews and Key each had four; King and Ponder each had three; and Tyleb Solomon had one.
“We’ve only got seven guys who’ve played before,” Jones said. “So we are not deep.”
Jones said he likes the development of big Quan Stokes, who is in his first year of playing basketball.
The eighth-graders will play for the first time this season at the Charlie A. Gray Junior High School gymnasium on Thursday when Valdosta visits.
“I hope being home settles us down,” Jones said. “But we’ve got to clean up the turnovers.”
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Related Photos
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J.J. Peterson goes up for two of his 10 points in the Colquitt County seventh-grade team’s season-opening 41-14 victory over Lowndes on Tuesday at the Willie J. Williams Middle School gymnasium. Connie Southwell
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Abiyah Spencer drives in for two of her game-high 10 points for the Colquitt County seventh-grade girls.
Discussion
Seventh-grade teams sweep openers
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