MOULTRIE – A 19-5 basketball regular season at Colquitt County High. There’s still more work to be done.

The Packers of coach Andy Harden, on Senior Night, topped a game Lee County High squad 58-50 Friday at William Bryant Court to cap off the regular season and take a three-game winning streak into Tuesday’s all-important Region 1-7A tournament game against Camden County at Lowndes High. This is a match-up of No. 3 vs. No. 4 seeds with the winner moving on to face Lowndes on Thursday and the loser hoping power rankings will be enough to make the GHSA Class 7A tournament.

“I haven’t scored a point. No coach has scored anything,” said Harden about giving credit to what’s happened to Packer basketball. “Where we’re at, it’s a testament to the hard work they put in. There’s a lot of people who said you can’t win in basketball at Colquitt County, but look at us now.”

Some may also say a situation like Tuesday’s Camden game, a team that had only one win as far back as last weekend when it played in Moultrie, is the hardest type of game to win. It’s a neutral floor, and the Wildcats have everything to gain and nothing to lose being what would appear to be an underdog.

“If you don’t prepare to win, you’re preparing to lose,” said Harden. “We are going to prepare for Camden like we prepare for every other team. We are not going to overlook anybody. That’s why you have to play the game. Look at the NCAA Tournament and all the upsets with mid-majors and the ones who barely get in. Anybody can win on a given night.

“Our kids are going to be ready. Our preseason goal was to host a state playoff game. We have to go to the region tournament and take care of that.”

A special announcement was also made Friday regarding seniors DaNas Andrews and Tyrese King. They accepted offers to play at Paul Quinn in Dallas. They both went on to score double figures on Lee County.

“They’ve bought in and did a great job being coachable, listening to what where doing,” said Harden about Packer player development to get to that kind of level. “(DaNas) has been playing with a bum ankle since Christmas. He’s gutting it out. They play so hard they compensate for a lot of our deficiencies.”

The major one would be height, and Lee County had that Friday in Cameron Covin, who had 16 points. But in addition to Andrews and King, Harden got 14 points from point guard Cam Singletary and 11 off the bench from the red-hot shooting Nizarre Thompson.

Lee was going to Covin inside often as the game progressed, and he kept the visiting Trojans within striking distance 11-9. But following an offensive foul on Lee, Singletary assisted Jy Andrews’ jumper. Though Covin got those points back with about 18 seconds on the clock, Jarvis Christopher drained the 3-ball at the six-second mark.

Colquitt County, though, would have bad starts to both the second and third periods. Their team up by five, the home crowd saw the visitors behind Covin tie the game 16-16. The Packers were marred by shots blocked going inside, turnovers and a technical foul.

Who would get the home team out of the funk? Thompson. Through ball reversal, he made his first 3 at 3:32 breaking the tie. He even shot off the dribble inside the arc for five team points in a row. Forward Quentin Dopson stole a pass intended for Colvin in the post, and Christopher made a move in the paint around the defender looking for a charge.

The Packers were up by six, 23-17, when Covin’s offensive rebounding work earned the old-fashioned three-point play. King then did his own 5-0 run with an NBA-range 3. All coupled with Blake Dawson’s late steal, Colquitt went into halftime up 28-20.

D. Andrews went baseline to get the Packers on the board early in the third quarter, but mostly it was Lee County and Colvin making the highlights. The Trojan big converted a second three-point play on the boards, and from his seven overall points the margin was down to three, 30-27.

Colquitt’s lead was two, 35-33, with just over two minutes in the third when Thompson stood on the ‘Court’ of ‘William Bryant Court’ and hit all net. The Trojans stood within two again, 38-36, and pressed, but Thompson threw a long outlet to D. Andrews. The basketball bounced around but counted at the buzzer.

The execution was there in the fourth, Jy Andrews finding his brother DaNas inside and Thompson hitting one more from the ‘Court.’ The Packers led by as much as 11, 51-40, when Covin had his first touch in several minutes at 3:43. Lee pulled back within five when Singletary spotted up for the decisive 3 at 2:22.

LADY PACKERS NO. 20

Behind nine 3-pointers, Colquitt County’s girls basketball team won for the 20th time against just four losses Friday, burying the Lee County Lady Trojans 55-26. Za’Nautica Downs had 19 points (four treys), Diamond Hall scored 18 (three treys), and the lone senior Ty’Asia McNeal excited her teammates with a 3-ball in the final minute of regulation.

The Lady Packers have not lost since the overtime 1-7A setback at Tift County on Jan. 13. That was three weeks ago covering seven games.

“That loss in Tifton put a spark in us,” said head coach Rondesha Williams. “We fought back in that loss. We were down by 16 points, and in two-and-a-half minutes came back and took the lead. Then we made a mental error.

“From that point on they realized we can play with anybody. Each game we get better. People are coming off the bench stepping up. Kiarra Lovett took that brace off and she’s unstoppable. She was a missing piece to the puzzle.”

And if Colquitt needed more, the outside game is getting more dangerous as point guard Akia Sutton gets more confident shooting from the perimeter. She scored four points Friday, and Abiyah Spencer has been good for one or two 3s per game lately.

It’s a one-game scenario for the top-seeded Lady Packers in the 1-7A tournament. This means they can sit back and watch the other three teams battle each other for the right to play them in Friday’s championship game at Lowndes.

The host Vikettes will have to play on Tuesday against Camden County, and the winner plays second-seeded Tift County on Thursday. Williams said there is no favorable matchup among the three, that they will prepare hard regardless of who makes it to Friday and go for the victory, the first region title since 1988.

“We have time to strategize and get ready for whoever we play (in the region finals),” said Williams. “These girls have been playing hard since 9th grade. Six of these juniors were playing varsity when they were freshmen. We have watched them bloom into awesome athletes and awesome students. I have the best coaching staff, so I know we’re going to do great things.”

On Friday, Lee County led 12-9 after the first quarter. It ended with two Colquitt turnovers and a block from the Lady Trojans in the post.

The turnovers, that was Lee’s thing the rest of the game with 10 coming in the second quarter. Downs tied the game on the first possession at the top of the key, and Hall followed with two penetration assists to Lovett. Spencer made her 3 count here, and Hall, not yet involved in the scoring, did a stick-back for 20-16.

Downs blocked two shots late, and Hall did a steal and score in the final minute to make it 22-16 at the half.

Colquitt came close to another shutout quarter defensively; Lee didn’t make a field goal in the third quarter until there were six seconds to play. That would be due to eight more turnovers. Hall had two steals, blocked a shot and did a turnaround jumper against a bigger forward. In all, it was a 20-point game, 39-19, going into the fourth.

In addition to the 3s, Downs pushed the ball for an assist to back-up Tim’mya Sanders.