MOULTRIE — The Colquitt County High boys basketball team shook off a two-game losing streak and climbed back into the Region 1-AAAAA race on Tuesday with a big 79-53 upset of Lowndes at the Charles Cooper Gymnasium.

The victory salvaged a split for Colquitt County after the Lady Packers dropped a 47-45 decision to the Vikettes in the evening’s first game.

The Lowndes boys took a 13-2 record and a No. 9 ranking in Class AAAAA into the game, but fell behind 20-10 in the first quarter and never recovered.

The Colquitt County victory has the Packers and Vikings tied for second place in the region at 3-2.

The Packers had lost successive games on Friday to Tift County and on Saturday — without starters Antwan Tuff and Jeremy DeBruce — to Thomasville. But they ignored the hostile Lowndes gymnasium atmosphere to knock off a team that had previously lost only to Rickards High of Tallahassee and Tift County.

“The kids have started believing in the system,” said Packers first-year coach Kirven Davis. “It was gut-check time. I put out a challenge to them and they responded.

“Maybe this is the corner we’ve been talking about turning.”

The Packers had three players in double-figures, led by James Trimble who had 19 points, 19 rebounds and four steals. Andrew Wallace had 17 points and seven rebounds. Tuff had 15 points and five rebounds.

“We dominated the backboards,” Davis said.

Told that the game would likely be the talk of the region this week, Davis responded, “That’s what we want.”

The Packers led by 17 at the half and by 29 heading into the final quarter.

DeBruce added eight points, Ronald Wilson had seven, Channing Hudson had five and Orion Ponder, Corey Goss, Nolan White and Dannie Hunt each had two points. Kamari Peterson added a free throw.

Ponder had 12 assists as the Packers raise their overall record to 10-6.

The Colquitt County girls’ loss drops them to 12-6 overall and 3-2 in the region.

The Lady Packers now have lost two region games in a row after opening with three straight victories.

And while the 47-45 loss to the Vikettes was much closer than the 47-27 defeat handed to them by Tift County on Friday, it also was difficult to swallow.

The Vikettes hit a pair of free throws with 12 seconds left in the game to take the lead and the Lady Packers were unable to get a shot from underneath to fall in waning seconds.

“The game just kind of ran out on us,” Lady Packers coach Joe Parker said.

Parker said his team ran its offense and got the shots it wanted, but was unable to get them to fall.

“We got what we wanted offensively,” Parker said. “I can’t get us any better looks. And we mixed our defenses. But people are making their shots (against us) and we’re not.”

The Lady Packers also again struggled from the free throw line, hitting just 4-of-11.

The victory was the 11th in a row for the Vikettes, who raised their overall record to 17-2 overall and 4-1 in the region.

The game was tied 23-23 at the half and the Vikettes went up by two heading into the final eight minutes by outscoring the Lady Packers 18-16 in the third quarter.

Each team scored six points in the fourth quarter.

Colquitt was led in scoring by Nikki Hudson, who had 11 points. Ashley Stafford and Taquella Coates each had 10 points and Coates grabbed 10 rebounds.

Jessica Lemus had five points, Nicolle Thomas had four, Dorothy Strong had three points and Tiffany Troupe had one basket.

Colquitt County will travel to Valdosta on Friday.

Also on Tuesday in Tifton, the Coffee girls dealt Tift County a 43-42 defeat. The Lady Trojans are now 2-3 in the region. The Lady Devils, who defeated Colquitt County 47-27 on Friday, fall to 2-2.

In the boys game, Tift County raised its region record to 4-0 with a 55-54 win.