MOULTRIE – For the first time in 11 years, Colquitt County High girls basketball is an outright No. 1 region seed for tournament play.

The Lady Packers never trailed Tuesday’s home contest with Lowndes High on William Bryant Court, but then coach Rondesha Williams could never relax on the sidelines. With a second-straight 31-point outburst by Za’Nautica Downs, Colquitt County defeated the Vikettes 67-54 to complete Region 1-7A regular season play at 5-1.

And as that No. 1 seed, the Lady Packers are assured of quite a few things. They will only have to play one game in the upcoming 1-7A tournament at Lowndes on Feb. 10, and they will be playing at home to start the GHSA 7A state tournament with a guaranteed top two region seed.

Williams said in the past the Lady Packers always either finished No. 2 in region or wound up in a first-place tie and never got a coin toss in their favor.

In the Lowndes game, Diamond Hall scored 16 points, and it was a season-best effort for forward Kiarra Lovett. She was the ‘garbage girl’ hitting the boards and the floor to score 12 points.

Williams said it’s the kind of things she was looking for out of Lovett when the told her to “take that brace off and get to work.” Lovett, the coach said, had shoulder surgery one year ago and came into this season nervous about what might happen to cause further damage.

Everything looked great for Colquitt County girls in the onset with 10 straight points and a lead as big as 15, 21-6, in the opening quarter. Lovett was immediately into the flow of things taking a high-low assist from Downs. Downs had three steals in the period, one of which got the ball back for Colquitt after a turnover.

Lowndes’ first points came at 4:46. Hall then had two assists, one on the inbound to Downs and another off penetration. That became a no-look pass to point guard Akia Sutton.

The 21-6 lead was courtesy of one more Downs steal. The Lady Packers would not score again in the quarter, the Vikettes going to the foul line for four points to pull within 11, 21-10. The visitors’ run extended into the second quarter with fast-break points coming at 6:32.

Colquitt’s first field goal in the quarter came at 5:11, Sutton nailing a jumper resulting from good ball movement. As the Vikettes got as close as six, 25-19, on the offensive boards, Hall threw her third assist on a mini-break. It gave Abiyah Spencer her only basket of the night.

With 34 seconds remaining, Hall received a long outlet, dribbled and spun to connect. At the half, the Lady Packers led 30-21.

Lovett made her biggest contributions during the second half. It all started as Hall tried to feed Downs inside, but Lowndes defended the ball back to her. So there was Lovett open on the opposite block, and she had the first of two made baskets in the third.

The Lady Packers were steadily up by 11, even 13 (38-25) off consecutive makes by Hall. Lowndes, however, used defensive stops to push the ball ahead twice and score six overall in a row. As the Lady Packers were dealing with the press, Lovett saved the ball on the floor. Sutton took her pass and regained that 11-point edge 42-31.

Late in the third and early in the fourth, the Vikettes made 3-point shots answered each in 2-point range by Downs and Hall. Lowndes found a third trey with under six minutes to go and shrunk the margin back to six, 46-40. Colquitt was being plagued by bad shot selection, and then Downs used Hall’s high pick to sink 3.

As Lowndes kept finding ways to get as close as seven, Colquitt had answers. Lovett was especially helpful with two put-backs, the first at 3:17 remaining. Sutton would later have a shot blocked back to her, but she passed it off to the 3-point shooting Downs for 58-46.

Colquitt’s remaining scoring was at the foul line, eight made shots. For the game, Downs was 12-for-13 on the line.

PACKER BOYS GET 18th WIN

Colquitt County’s boys basketball team, while assured of the No. 3 seed in next week’s Region 1-7A tournament, had plenty of things to play for Tuesday, like ending the regular season with two league wins in a row.

Behind 23 points from point guard Cam Singletary, the Packers of Andy Harden got the victory, 69-57, over a Lowndes team that came into Moultrie tied with Tift County for first place at 4-1. For Colquitt, it was the 18th win of the season, the first time since the early 1980s that a Packer boys team had that many victories.

Harden said that while they didn’t play particularly well Tuesday – boxing out his biggest issue – the team still finds ways to win.

“We kept playing hard and getting after it,” he said.

In addition to Singletary’s production, Tyrese King had 13 points and Jy Andrews 10. Quentin Dopson added nine.

It was a sluggish beginning all around, but Singletary turned things around at 4:33 stealing the ball and making the assist under the goal to DaNas Andrews. In fact, three of Colquitt’s baskets of the quarter were via steals by the point guard. He would later score five points off thefts with Dopson adding two more from the offensive boards.

The first quarter ended at 9-9. Who would get the spark going for Colquitt in the next period but Singletary, curling around to catch and shoot a good 3 and adding one more steal to his total. With Jarvis Christopher sinking a trey, it was an 8-1 Colquitt run for 17-10.

Lowndes got only as close as four, 19-15, from a put-back, one that was matched by D. Andrews. Singletary didn’t do everything outside, for he challenged the bigs inside and made 2. Nizarre Thompson, he of the eight 3-pointers from Saturday’s win vs. Camden County, only had one Tuesday, but it came from a corner late in the half assisted by Singletary.

The final say before the break was from the point guard, answering Michael Barrett’s steal with the 3 ball. That made it 30-21 Packers.

Through the third period, Colquitt had steals by Singletary and Blake Dawson, but few points. At 2:51, Lowndes’ trey had the margin down to five, 38-33, then a takeaway shaved it down to three. That’s when King came up with his big play of the night, a third-chance basket and foul that doubled his team’s advantage. D. Andrews, towards the end, converted an inbound pass, and going into the fourth his team was up 43-36.

It was an intense fourth quarter which saw the ejection of the Viking coach. But at 6:24 the visitors used their second 3 of the period to make it a four-point game, 48-44. A trade of foul shooting would follow, and then Singletary put the finishing touches on a great all-around night.

His dribbling led to an assist to an open Dopson underneath. He followed that with five more points making it 59-50 with 4:10 remaining.

Before the region tournament, Colquitt County has one more home doubleheader, Senior Night on Friday vs. Lee County. The Packer boys will face Camden County on Feb. 7 at Lowndes (7:30 p.m. tipoff) with the winner advancing to face the No. 2 seed on Feb. 9.