MOULTRIE — Colquitt County’s Joe Parker says his team needs to win its division in the Great Southern Shootout tournament that begins today in Macon, but the Lady Packers coach has some other goals as well.

“We definitely want to win it,” Parker said as his team prepared to meet Dougherty High at 5:30 p.m. today. “But we’ve got to get everyone involved. Selica (Daniels) has got to play. Monica (Wright) has got to play.

“We need them to be able to at least give us two or three minutes here and there.”

While the 5-3 Lady Packers will meet the Lady Trojans in the first game of their holiday tournament, the Colquitt County boys will be playing their final game in the Friendly City Classic in Albany.

The Packers, who have split their first two games in the tournament, will meet Rockdale County at 1 p.m. today at the Albany Civic Center.

The Packers defeated Lee County 74-58 in their tournament opener on Friday, but let a fourth-quarter lead slip away against Monroe on Saturday and fell 57-51.

The loss dropped the Packers to 4-3 overall and into a losers bracket meeting with Bulldogs, who lost 77-63 to Westover on Saturday.

Westover, which has won the last two Good Life City tournaments, met Monroe in one tournament semifinal on Monday. Dougherty and Bainbridge faced off in the other.

The tournament championship game is scheduled for 7 tonight in the Albany Civic Center.

Rockdale County, of Region 8-AAAA, won its first three games of the season, defeating Henry County 77-71, Luella 89-81 and Newton 49-40.

But the Bulldogs have lost two in a row since, falling to Madison County 86-75 before running up against the Patriots last Saturday.

The Packers have been starting Orion Ponder, Jeremy DeBruce and Antwan Tuff in the backcourt and Andrew Wallace and James Trimble up front.

Tuff, Trimble and Wallace are each averaging in double figures.

Tuff leads the team with a 13.0 average and has 17 and 12 points in the two tournament games.

Trimble is averaging 11.9 and has a remarkable streak of five straight 12-point games.

Wallace has scored 14 and 13 points in the tournament games to raise his average to 10.1.

Colquitt County’ girls have been waiting since Dec. 10 to rinse away the sour taste of a 58-49 loss to Worth County.

The Lady Packers will start Dorothy Strong, Nikki Hudson and Ashley Stafford in the backcourt and Jessica Lemus and Tiffany Troupe in the front court.

Stafford has led the team in scoring all season and is averaging 12 points a game. She is coming off a 16-point effort in the loss to Worth County.

Nicole Thomas, Laquita Smith and Taquella Coates have been giving the Lady Packers some quality minutes off the bench. Thomas, a ninth-grader, is tied with Lemus for the second-best scoring average on the team at nine points.

But Parker wants to see more of Daniels, a sophomore guard, and Wright, a senior front court player.

“We are going to key on them in the tournament,” Parker said. “Selica is too good an athlete not to be in the game.

“And we need to Monica to rebound the basketball for us.”

The Lady Packers originally were scheduled to play Spalding in their tournament opener, then their place in the bracket was changed so that they would play tournament host Westside-Macon.

Several days ago, the bracket was changed again and Colquitt will face Dougherty for the second time this season.

Colquitt knocked off the Lady Trojans 43-29 at Dougherty on Dec. 9. It was a game that remained close until a rested group of Lady Packers starters returned to the game late and put it away.

Hudson had a career-high 15 points in the game.

“They’re athletic and they give us a good look defensively,” Parker said of Dougherty. “Defensively, they are similar to Worth. It’ll be an active game, but we need to go over there and win it.”

With a victory, the Lady Packers would play the winner of the game between Vidalia and Central-Macon on Wednesday.

The division’s championship game is set for 6 p.m. Thursday.