MOULTRIE — The Colquitt County High girls basketball team went through the 2005-2006 season without one of those devastating knee injuries that seem to have been a common occurrence for the program.

It didn’t take long for the curse to raise its ugly head this year, however.

Starting guard Laquita Smith tore her ACL in the third game of the season and joined Jennifer Norman, Teresa Hamilton, Mantoya Thomas, Micole Sutton and Jessica Lemus on the list of Lady Packers who have had to miss large amounts of time with significant knee ligament damage.

The Lady Packers had won their first three games of the season when Smith was injured in the second quarter of the Dec. 9 meeting with Worth County in Sylvester.

Colquitt’s girls dropped that game 69-54 and were defeated by Bainbridge by one last Tuesday.

The Lady Packers hope to be able to regroup and get back on the winning side of the ledger when they travel to Macon on Thursday to take part in Great Southern Shootout.

Colquitt, now 3-2, will meet Carver High of Montgomery, Ala., at 3 p.m. Thursday in their tournament opener.

If the Lady Packers win on Thursday, they will play the Meadowcreek-Westside-Macon winner at 6 p.m. Friday. A loss would send the Lady Packers to a 10:30 a.m. Friday game against the Meadowcreek-Westside loser. Meadowcreek and Westside will meet at 10:30 a.m. Thursday.

Colquitt will play its final game in the tournament on Saturday.

Also on Thursday, Parkway High will face Northeast Macon at 9 a.m. and University City school will play Hephzibah at 7:30 p.m.

The Lady Packers won two of its three games in the tournament last year, defeating Dougerty 52-31 and Vidalia 67-46 before falling to tournament host Westside in the championship game 47-45.

But Colquitt is expected to have its hands full with Carver.

Lady Packers coach Joe Parker said Carver has two post players who are 6-foot-2 and 6-foot-3 and an outstanding, highly recruited guard.

Parker will continue to use freshman Shay Lovett in place of Smith, who is slated to have surgery on her knee, but is expected to play next season as a senior.

The Lady Packers will continue to count on the scoring of junior post player Taquella Coates and sophomore wing Nicolle Thomas.

Parker said he will have his team picking up their defense a little sooner in the tournament.

“They understand we’ve got to have more pressure,” Parker said. “We know it’s going to make us a little more tired. But we’ve got real coachable kids.”

Joining Lovett, Coates and Thomas in the starting lineup will be Nikki Hudson and Tiffany Troupe.