MOULTRIE – Naia Benefield was back in the Lady Packer lineup, and Janiah Ellis put on her typical showing Friday in Region 1-7A basketball for Colquitt County. Ellis had 26 points and Benefield 11 as Rondesha Williams’ squad won 52-46 on a night it was up on Tift County by as much as 15.

Lowndes’ girls defeated Camden County 50-43 Friday in Valdosta to tie the Lady Wildcats for second at 2-3 in the region. The regular season concludes Friday with the 5-0 Lady Packers hosting Lowndes on William Bryant Court.

Tift County’s girls, 1-4 in the region, under coach Julie Conner often give Colquitt fits on William Bryant Court, and Friday they started the game blocking three shots and, from the offensive glass, was within a point (5-4) at the 2:54 mark. Ellis had eight points in the period, but it was her supplemental help making the difference. Tionna Hunt, senior, assisted Eriyona Stokes on a cut into the lane.

Tift answered that with a little half-court execution of its own and tied the game.

Benefield, injured early the previous Friday at Camden County and held out of Monday’s non-region game, proved her worth with two first-quarter steals. She turned one into 2 points on the run right after she was called for a moving screen. That was part of a 6-0 run to end the period 13-7 Lady Packers.

Hunt was also back at full strength after an injury scare at Camden as she converted Benefield’s fast-break assist to start the new quarter. Tift was also able to run the floor and score on a missed 3, an area at which the Lady Packers were not too proficient Friday. But the defense triggered plenty of offense as Ellis went end-to-end stealing an inbound and Benefield made her third theft of the half. Camille Singletary found Hunt for her side’s only made 3-pointer at 3:40.

The action slowed down for the rest of the half, and the Lady Packers sailed into the break up 25-11.

While Hunt made two steals and went baseline to score, there were some bad turnovers prompting timeouts out of Williams. But the giveaways still happened, and it was Tift’s girls lighting things up from outside with two 3-pointers.

They went from trailing by 14 to five, 31-26, even when there was a nice connection from Singletary to Benefield.

There would be another 7-0 Colquitt run with Ellis’ three-point play off her steal and Singletary’s fast-break assist to Hunt. Three straight Colquitt field goals came from Benefield’s offensive rebounding. She took the game into the fourth at 42-29 Colquitt and put her club up by 15 (46-31) early in that final period.

But there was just one more made field goal the rest of the way with a lot of wild shots and little in offensive boards. Stokes fouled out with 1:58 remaining and the lead down to six, 50-44. It again became a six-point game when Tift went high-low with 53 seconds to play. The hosts missed five of their last six foul shots, but Tift also missed four in a row from the floor after a takeaway.

This was the 11th win in a row for Colquitt’s girls, now ranked No. 6 in Class 7A and 18-2 overall.