MOULTRIE — LaQuan Evans broke a 38-38 tie with a basket and a free throw in the final 33 seconds to lead the Worth County ninth-grade basketball team to a 41-38 victory over Colquitt County on Wednesday at the Willie J. Williams Middle School gymnasium.

The loss drops the Packer freshmen to 5-3 as they head into the holiday break.

The ninth-graders will meet Bainbridge at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 5, at the Espy Gymnasium.

The Packers freshmen had tied the game at 35-35 on baseline jumper by Brian Berl and then took a 38-37 lead on a long 3-pointer by Eric Key with 1:31 left in the game, but did not score again.

Worth County’s Tay Jackson tied the game with a a free throw with 1:12 left before Evans tipped in a teammate’s miss with just over a half-minute remaining.

Jackson led Worth County with 12 points. Donyale Pratt added 11.

Key had 12 and Jameil Tyson added 11 for Col-quitt County.

Berl had six, Dominique Hadley added four, Marquis Young had a 3-pointer and Trendon Jones had a basket.

While the freshmen were struggling with the ninth-grade Rams, the Colquitt County varsity boys continued preparations for their Friday night opener against Lee County in the WALB Basketball Classic at the Albany High gymnasium.

The Packers are 3-2 and are coming off a 77-66 victory over Worth County last Saturday at the Gladys Espy Memorial Gymnasium.

A victory over the Trojans would send the Packers to a winners bracket game against the winner of the Southwest-Macon-Monroe game at 7 p.m. Saturday. Should the Packers fall to Region 1-AAAA’s Trojans, they will meet the loser of tonight’s Worth County-Albany game at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in a losers bracket game.

The tournament will continue Monday at the Albany High gymnasium and Tuesday at the Albany Civic Center.

The Packers are likely to start seniors Antwan Tuff and Jeremy DeBruce and junior Orion Ponder at guard and senior James Trimble and junior Andrew Wallace in the front court. First-year coach Kirven Davis has consistently used 10 players in the early going.

Tuff leads the Packers in scoring with a 12.4 average and has scored 46 points in the last three games. He poured in a season-high 20 against Worth on Saturday.

Trimble is putting together a consistent season. After scoring five in the season-opening loss to Thomasville, the 6-foot-3 center has scored 18 against Bainbridge and 12 each against Worth, Dougherty and Worth again. He is averaging 11.8 points.

DeBruce is averaging 10.8 points and has a team season-high 23 points against Thomasville.