MOULTRIE – It’s an old joke that goes something like this: stumping your toe helps you forget about your toothache.

Colquitt County High athletics had some painful losses over the past two months. Some of these Packer students had to endure two, including a Jan. 6 home basketball game against Tift County High that ended 67-64 for the visiting Blue Devils. Colquitt’s boys were leading the defending Class 7A champions with less than two minutes left in regulation, then gave up two baskets in a row and lost a potential winning possession on a turnover with 23 seconds to go.

The rematch in Region 1-7A is set to take place in Tifton tonight, but the Packers of head coach Andy Harden are taking a different kind of pain on this road trip. That is a 72-64 region loss three days ago at Lowndes High. So in the four-team league, the Packers and Vikings are tied at 2-2 (Tift leads it at 4-0); Lowndes will also play Friday at last-place Camden County.

“We have a veteran team,” said Harden Thursday as his team was getting prepared for practice. “Our kids know what’s at stake. That’s the main reason I was so disappointed in the defensive effort (at Lowndes). We didn’t perform at the level we can.

“(Wednesday) we had a great practice. Our kids bounced back. One game is no bigger than any other game. The attitude and the sense of urgency and intensity in practice was great. I expect to have a great practice (Thursday). I expect for us (today) to go to Tifton and play really well, and then we’ll let everything fall where it falls.

“I really love this team. I love the make-up of it. Our six seniors have meant so much to our program that it’s on their shoulders. Everybody else has fallen into place.”

One of those seniors, however, will not be available for action. Forward Quentin Dopson, Harden said, was injured this week and is on a walking boot for what should be a week’s worth of time. The coach said there were players who received a lot of court time in the games where he was missing football players, and some of them will have a chance to step up and perform again in a rivalry environment.

“(Dopson) is an experienced big guy we need,” said Harden. “But we have to take care of Quentin. I will never ask a kid to play hurt. Their health is more important than any game or any win.

“It’s going to be an exciting atmosphere.”

It was an exciting, full atmosphere that Saturday on the William Bryant Court in Moultrie. Cam Singletary had 30 points. Another football receiver, Rashod Bateman of Tift, scored 18.

“We watched the film,” said Harden. “There are going to be adjustments made, just like Tift is going to make adjustments for us. Our kids have got to make plays.”

It’s a situation where you would think nobody you rely on can have an off night. Like Dopson, two other Packer seniors who are full-time basketball and thus were there from Day 1 are Jy Andrews and Nizarre Thompson. Harden said they do the work in the weight room, lead in the locker room, and are making their names known to where they should get chances at the next level.

In fact, Andrews, Harden said, committed to Paul Quinn College in Texas. That’s where two Packer 2017 seniors signed last May: Tyrese King and Jy’s brother DaNas Andrews.

“He will be following in his big brother’s footsteps,” said Harden about the guard who is more than just DaNas’ little sibling.

“It was an easy decision,” said Andrews. “I always wanted to play basketball with my brother. When he left, I was thinking in my mind Paul Quinn was the college for me. He told me how he liked it out there. When I got the offer, it was ‘That’s all I need.’”

Andrews didn’t get serious about basketball until he was an 8th grader … actually he said the only reason he played on the hardwood was to be around his friends.

“Now, it’s something I want to do in the future,” said Andrews. “On the defensive end, I don’t think anybody’s going to score on me that much. I need to work on my dribbling and being more aggressive.

Thompson had his ‘coming out’ moment as a basketball player against Tift County … junior varsity. At home during the 2016-17 season, Thompson nailed a game-winning 3-pointer prior to the varsity action in a gym that was already filling up and thus sent into a frenzy.

Looking back to that game, Thompson only played two quarters, one being the fourth. Things weren’t going well for Colquitt, he recalls, so he checked in looking to change that.

“I had seen I was kind of wide open,” said Thompson. “‘I’m about to hit this.’ I knew it was going in before I even shot it.”

Gaining more varsity time, Thompson sank eight 3-pointers in a home win against Camden County. That was the night following the Tift contests, and Thompson knew they needed to recover from falling again to the Blue Devils. They kept feeding him the ball, and he kept scoring.

His game, however, has gone beyond the long-range shooting as he’s used his reach to challenge shots and take the basketball to the rim.

“Right now, we are challenging Nizarre (pronounced Naz-e-air, as the cheerleaders chant with each of his connections) on the defensive end,” said Harden. “For Nizarre to go to the next level – and he has several colleges interested in him, and after the season we’ll find out what’s the best fit for him – he’s got to work harder in other aspects of his game. Everybody knows he can shoot it.”

“I have to work on my defense,” said Thompson. “I have to take the defensive drills serious, stop being lazy.”

“We all have to buy into what coach is saying,” said Andrews about trying to beat Tift. “We have to stay as one, play defense and rebound, and limit their run.”

“We have to maintain the crowd and limit what they do,” said Thompson. “I’ll try (to make another game-winner) if it comes down to that.”

“I get emotional thinking it’s about to come to an end,” said Harden about his seniors. He felt that way about DaNas Andrews, King and his Class of 2017 group. “I’m excited that all six will receive an athletic scholarship in some area (like Kaleb Dawson, already signed to play football for Appalachian State). It’s important for me to know those guys will have a college education paid for and be able to better themselves.”

DaNas Andrews and King are both red-shirting for Paul Quinn this current season. Harden said both are doing real well in their practices and with their grades.