MOULTRIE — When his team was down 12-4 after the first quarter and 27-16 at the end of the first half of its season-opener on Tuesday, Colquitt County girls basketball coach Joe Parker wondered how his team would respond the rest of the way.

The Lady Packers could not have pleased their coach more, outscoring Ware County 29-11 in the final two quarters to take a 45-38 victory in the second annual Charles Cooper Memorial Tipoff Invitational being held at the Lowndes High gymnasium.

“That is a nice win,” said Parker, whose team will meet Cairo at 4 p.m. today in its final tournament contest.

“It would have been easy to just let it go, say we’ll come back tomorrow and play better. But we grouped at the half and came back and really worked hard.”

Down 25-8 at one point in the second quarter, the Lady Packers wore down the Lady Gators in the second half for a 24-point swing.

“And they are not a bad team,” Parker said of Ware County, which had defeated Valdosta 54-32 on Monday night. “That is a good experience for us. A win like that can carry you a long way.”

Parker called the beginning of the game “ugly,” and said his team came out flat.

“Ware came out an was sharper than we were,” Parker said. “That first half almost killed us. But we made a run before the half. We were making them play our game.

“And then we did a real nice job at the end. (Ware) got tired.”

Colquitt’s girls had 21 field goals to just 11 for Ware County.

The Lady Gators went to the foul line 19 times, hitting 14. The Lady Packers went just five times and converted two.

Colquitt was able to overcome 19 first-half turnovers by holding the Lady Gators to just two fourth-quarter points.

“We played pretty good defense,” Parker said. “And Nikki (Hudson) played a long time with four fouls.”

The Lady Packers were led by junior Taquella Coates, who had 18 points and was 9-for-12 from the field.

“When we get it to her, she sticks in the basket,” Parker said. “And she had a girl between her and the basket.”

Laquita Smith had 10 points, Nicolle Thomas added nine, Hudson had four and Tiffany Troupe and Shay Lovett each had two.

Coates and Troupe led the team with six rebounds apiece.

“Troupe was tough on the boards,” Parker said. “To be as little as she is, it was amazing.”

The tournament opened on Monday. In the other game on Monday, Lowndes defeated Cairo 64-32. Also on Tuesday, Valdosta met Cairo at 5:30 p.m. and Lowndes played Thomasville at 7:30 p.m.

After today’s game against Cairo, the Lady Packers, ranked No. 8 in Class AAAAA in the state, will be off until next Tuesday when the Colquitt County girls and boys teams meet Worth County at the Gladys Espy Gymnasium in the 2006-2007 home openers.

The girls game will start at 6 p.m. The boys game, which will be the first of the regular season for the Packers, will follow.

Colquitt will travel to Sylvester to meet Worth County on Saturday, Dec. 9, and will go to Bainbridge to meet the Bearcats and Lady Cats on Tuesday, Dec. 12.

The Packers will travel to Bowling Green, Ky., for a holiday tournament on Dec. 18-20. The Lady Packers will go to Macon on Dec. 21-23.