Colquitt County's Akia Sutton guards Tift's Emma Chote Friday at Tift County High.

TIFTON – From dreadful to dynamite to deep disappointment, the Colquitt County High girls basketball bench experienced all those peaks and valleys Friday at Tift County High’s gym. While 3-pointers from both sides sent the packed gym into a frenzy – and the game into overtime – it was four simple foul shots from Lady Blue Devil forward Kaysie Harrelson that wound up winning the contest for the home club 56-53.

Rondesha Williams and the Lady Packers fell to 13-4 overall, but this was the most significant game of the 2016-17 season thus far in that it was the first in the four-team, six-game Region 1-7A schedule.

That schedule continues Tuesday, also on the road, when Colquitt County visits Lowndes in Valdosta.

Harrelson took shots inside at will Friday and finished with 11 points overall. Another Tift County forward, Audrey McElhaney, led the winners with 14 points.

Za’Nautica Downs topped all scorers in this triller with 20 points, and it was her 3-pointer that nearly spelled victory for Colquitt after it was down as many as 16 points in the final period. Diamond Hall tallied 15 points and Akia Sutton eight.

The Lady Packers, though, trailed all game long, the score 37-26 in Tift County’s favor going into the fourth quarter. Harrelson scored five straight, 2 inside the lane and 3 outside the arc, to stretch that advantage to 16. Colquitt County scored at 5:26 and proceeded to shut down the hosts for nearly a five-minute span of game time. Downs made three steals in all for the final period, and taking the basketball away one time each were Sutton, Hall and Ty’Asia McNeil.

Sutton’s steal turned into an assist for Downs. Hall would later fire an outlet pass diagonally to Downs in the right spot for the 1,000-plus point career score to fire away and connect for 3. Now, the Lady Packers only trailed by seven, 42-35.

There was 1:03 remaining when double technical fouls put Colquitt in the 1-and-1. With four makes from the line, the score read 42-39, but Tift County ended its long cold spell when McElhaney ran the floor.

The Lady Packers would use every second available to reel off five more in a row, which included Downs’ baseline penetration to draw a foul at 35.3 seconds. With her free throws, the game was even for the first time since the opening tip.

Before the Lady Blue Devils could get over the timeline, they turned the ball over. The ball went from Sutton to Hall to Downs for the go-ahead trey, 47-44. The crowd for one side exploded, but there was still 24 seconds for things to happen on the court. One thing to happen was a steal by Hall, but possession went back to Tift. With seven seconds remaining, Joslyn Reyes sank the tying 3 to get her fans uproarious.

And everyone would be treated to free basketball.

Hall’s put-back of her own miss helped stake Colquitt to a 51-47 lead in overtime. But for Tift a 5-0 run put it back ahead by one. Downs, with 1:03 on the clock, rebounded her own miss to earn a go-ahead basket at 53-52. Harrelson, not an offensive factor since early in the fourth, found herself on the foul line twice and went 4-for-4, thus winning the game. The Lady Packers had numerous breaks on their end – like two offensive rebounds by Kiarra Lovett and a jump ball call with the arrow in their favor – but nothing that counted on the scoreboard.

All that drama seemed unlikely when Tift’s girls opened the game on a 9-0 run. It was a first quarter where Hall had three steals, both Downs and Lovett missed open lay-ups, and Harrelson not only put in 2 down low but caused a walking violation.

Downs notched the first Lady Packer points on a jumper at 1:06, and it was Colquitt actually ending the period with four in a row (9-4). But with the ball lobbed in to Harrelson, Tift had the first make of the second. Downs and Hall executed the pick-and-roll to counter, but Williams had to remove Downs for a spell when she picked up two quick fouls at 5:54.

The short jump shot started to fall for the visiting team, two by Sutton and one from Hall. The Lady Packers were also going to need some dribble penetration, and got it with the assist from Hall to Sutton. Downs would play some more before halftime and penetrated herself to find Hall for 2. Colquitt built some momentum from two big Tift turnovers, including Lovett’s steal in the post. Though three shots just prior to the buzzer would not fall, Williams’ girls had the margin down to four at the break, 20-16.

The Lady Blue Devils opened the second half with five straight, including a 3 over the zone defense. Abiyah Spencer of Colquitt hit two treys in the third quarter and Hall converted a third-shot put-back, but Tift would go up 10 on a lob to Harrelson (29-19). When the next lob went to the forward, she missed two shots but teammate Dayara Chancy was open for a weakside score, foul and 32-21 lead.

COLQUITT-TIFT BOYS

From one fantastic finish to another much-anticipated Region 1-7A clash, the Tift County boys basketball team did about the same as their girls counterparts when facing the 14-2 Colquitt County Packers of coach Andy Harden.

Only this time, the Blue Devils of coach Eric Holland did not give up an early 12-0 lead, the final margin Friday staying at 12 58-46.

P.J. Horne led all scorers with 26 points, and Micah Johnson of Tift had 18 points. For Colquitt, Cam Singletary had the team-high of nine points, with forwards DaNas Andrews and Quentin Dopson each scoring seven.

The combination of Johnson and Horne needed almost half the first quarter to build the early 12-0 advantage. Tyrese King’s 3-pointer got the Packers on the board for the first time at 4:07. The Blue Devils proceeded to miss four of their next five attempts from 3, but that one make was a corner shot by Horne for 15-5.

Colquitt also missed three straight outside the arc but created some turnovers with steals by Andrews and Singletary. Singletary scored off his theft to end the opening quarter at 15-7.

The Packer issue in the first half was not making their first-shot attempts at the basket. Big Blue Devil Fred Lloyd’s put-back was the only scoring of the second quarter overall for nearly half the time. Andrews’ baseline penetration assist to Dopson ended Colquitt’s drought more than four minutes until the half, and despite second-chance scoring the visitors were still down by eight, 19-11.

As the clock moved under two minutes, Tift ran the floor twice for four points while Dopson took another pass from Andrews in the lane for 2. The Packers created turnovers late, Jy Andrews making a steal and assist to Kaleb Dawson to end the half at 25-15 Blue Devils.

For the third quarter, both Singletary and Jarvis Christopher each had two steals and Dopson put in 2 from the offensive glass. The Blue Devils had only small spurts of explosiveness since the big opening run, and at 4:13 Lloyd’s breakaway slam was one of two transition hoops that upped their lead back to 11, 31-20.

Colquitt County made it’s last major push, a 6-0 run with Singletary’s assist to Dawson and King’s old-fashioned three-point play. They pulled to within five, 31-26, but watched Rashad Bateman slam in an offensive rebound to cap off six straight. At the end of the third, Tift led 38-30.

Horne then put on his own show in a 12-1 fourth-quarter run with 10 points (two 3s, two assisted slams). The Packers trailed as much as 19, then got two 3s off the bench from Nizarre Thompson.