Colquitt County High senior DaNas Andrews and coach Andy Harden embrace after the Region 1-7A championship game held at Lowndes High last month.

MOULTRIE – Look at the Final Four for GHSA Class 7A boys basketball, and you find three Colquitt County High opponents. Then look at the record books and see one of the most successful hardwood seasons in Packer history.

Could it have been even better? How close was Andy Harden’s team from shaking up the brackets and keeping the Norcross Blue Devils at home as opposed to the current track that team is on to Georgia Tech and Saturday’s final round with Packer rival Tift County?

“We were confident the whole week,” said Harden about the preparations for the second-round matchup at Norcross that took place Feb. 22. “We had a good game plan. Our coaches did a great job of getting it together. Our kids bought in, executed. Norcross has the 6-8 kid going to Georgia, the 6-9 kid going to Louisville and the 6-5 guard going to UNLV. Our kids just fought and battled.”

Colquitt trailed by two with 24 seconds remaining, but when the Blue Devils grabbed a key offensive board it forced the Packers to foul. Norcross only made one of two free throws, but then Colquitt missed a potential tying 3-pointer. More fouling was necessary, and the home team wound up prevailing 66-59.

This game was on the heels of the first Colquitt boys basketball home state playoff game ever and the first state victory since the 1950s.

“We would take the lead, tie it. It was going back and forth the whole game,” said Harden. “In order to play against a team like that in the second round … we know we can compete at that level. I told our kids after the game I would have been more excited if we had won, but I would not have been prouder if we had won. We gave it everything we had, and we were right there. That’s all you can ask.”

Do what you’re coached to do. That was a recurring theme throughout the historic season, and that message isn’t likely to change as Harden and the Packers look to build on this success. There’s a measuring stick of sorts right in Colquitt’s own region, and that is Norcross’ opponent in the championship game. It’s another set of Blue Devils from Tift County High.

The Packers faced Tift three times in 2016-17, going 0-3. That included the 1-7A championship game, one for which Colquitt had to win two games in order to qualify.

Harden points out that in the finals his team was within seven points in the fourth quarter. They had two chances to cut into that deficit but either missed the basket or lost the ball.

It won’t be a rebuilding job either in the offseason. There were two senior starters, forward DaNas Andrews and guard Tyrese King. Six others who gave significant minutes on the court are returning.

“We finally have kids in place in our program who make sure they put themselves in the right mindset for us to be successful,” said Harden. “They never got satisfied with the success we were having. We never got complacent. It was never, ‘We’ve done this, it’s O.K. now.’ They always wanted more.

“A lot of people, even some of my colleagues, said we can’t win here because of football. Football is always going to be No. 1 in our community. However, for that portion of our community that really enjoys basketball, I’m very excited we were able to give them something to watch this year.”

When Harden said the players are hungry and want more, that includes opportunities to work and improve on the court.

“Right now, our biggest problem is giving them a break,” he said. “We are going to start back Monday, but they want to get in there and start now. They don’t want (a break). They want to start preparing for this summer, for 2 on 1’s, individual skill work and next season.”

Andrews and King received college scholarship offers from the same school, Paul Quinn, in Dallas. Harden said the interest in Packer basketball players is growing even more. Those current underclassmen are Jy Andrews, Quinten Dopson, Jarvis Christopher, Kaleb Dawson, Nizarre Thompson and Cameron Singletary, who will actually bring two years of starting experience at point guard into 2017-18.

And when Harden said the future of Colquitt basketball is bright, he wanted to include the Lady Packer program under Rondesha Williams. The 1-7A champions who finished in the Elite 8 have all starters returning with just one senior on the roster.