MOULTRIE – With the myriad of turnovers and cold-shooting spells, no lead was safe Friday, not for the Region 1-7A champion Colquitt County High Lady Packers or visiting Woodstock High. Then this No. 4 region seed in the GHSA 7A girls basketball championships displayed the confidence and the execution to be even with Colquitt going into the final two minutes of regulation.

Janiah Ellis, recently crowned Region 1-7A Player of the Year, made her lay-up with 39 seconds remaining to break the 55-55 tie. Reserve point guard Camille Singletary, without any points all game, hit four foul shots in a row to make the final cushion in a 61-55 first-round win on William Bryant Court.

The Lady Packers of coach Rondesha Williams move on to host Campbell, 66-56 winners over Hillgrove Friday, in the second round Wednesday or Thursday.

The junior Ellis finished the game with 18 points. High-scoring honors, however, went to one of the co-Offensive Players of the Year in her region, senior Tionna Hunt with 22.

Colquitt’s biggest lead on Woodstock all game was seven (the LPs trailed by six at one point in the first half). With 44 seconds remaining in the third period, Naia Benefield did what she’d been attempting all game, score on the offensive glass. Her long-awaited put-back had Colquitt up 43-36, but then Woodstock ended the quarter on a 5-1 run.

The Wolverines lobbed the basketball in to 6-2 Ashley Casey for 2. The shocker, though, was Leah Pettaway’s 3-pointer that beat the buzzer. It was her second make from 3 in the quarter.

Woodstock extended that run to 7-1 opening the fourth and trailed by one, 44-43. Hunt, getting most of her results from the second quarter on, went to the other end and followed in her own miss to earn three the old-fashioned way. The Wolverines didn’t fold, however, and went on a 5-0 run to take their first lead of the second half, 50-49. All five belonged to a freshman guard, Bridget Utberg, with a 3-pointer and 2 off her own interception.

Senior Lee Gearing of Woodstock broke a 50-all tie on the offensive glass, but Hunt matched that with another second-shot score. With 2:45 to play, the Wolverines saved a ball from going out of bounds under its own basket. The ball fell in Pettaway’s hands, and she launched a successful 3. That too was equaled not much later by Hunt for 55-all.

Both teams were called for traveling violations, and the Lady Packers were even hit with a charging foul at 1:25. With Woodstock heavily guarding the outside, Ellis found space to go in the lane for her winning basket. Singletary rebounded the Wolverine effort to level the score at the 15-second mark, drawing one of the two late fouls.

As good as Colquitt County was at creating turnovers (three steals for Tim’mya Sanders) in the opening quarter, the hosts gave the basketball up just as easily. Their biggest lead in the first half came as a result of Ellis’ steal-and-assist to Eriyona Stokes. The 8-2 advantage Colquitt built quickly went away with Woodstock’s 6-0 run. Sophia Singer capped it connecting from 3.

Sanders threw up a third-chance attempt that broke the tie at the two-minute mark, but Colquitt proceeded to turn the ball over three straight times. Ellis broke the Wolverine press and the 10-10 tie with 34 seconds to play, but Utberg was awarded 3 on the last shot made.

Though leading 13-12 going into the second period, Woodstock was not consistent shooting the basketball. They did go on an 8-0 overall run for the six-point advantage of 18-12, but the reliance on the 3-point shot gave Colquitt the chance to rally. Hunt ended the streak making 3 off a takeaway, and she caught a long outlet from Ellis to get 2 more.

Gearing, with yet another put-back in the game, set the Wolverines to go up by four, 22-18, as the Lady Packers hit a cold spell from the floor. They were still down four, 24-20, when they had possession with 21 seconds to play. Hunt hit the 3-ball, so it was a one-point game at the half.

This time it was Colquitt extending a run from one quarter to the next, 8-0, and again it was Hunt with the 3 curling to a corner. But another trend in the game was a four-point lead (28-24 Lady Packers) not lasting long. Colquitt was tasked with breaking a 28-all tie, and Ellis made the first of three pro-length 3-pointers for the home team in the third period. When Woodstock made 3 off a turnover, Stokes hit an extra-long one in response (35-31 LPs).

That sequence repeated itself, this time Ellis matching the 3 just prior to the Benefield stick-back and seven-point bulge.