Lady Packers to face top-ranked Parkview today

Published 4:59 pm Thursday, February 19, 2015

MOULTRIE – The last time the Colquitt County girls basketball team reached the state quarterfinals was in 2006.

To do so this year would take defeating the team ranked by MaxPreps as No. 1 in Class AAAAAA, No. 1 in Georgia regardless of classification and No. 30 in the nation.

Region 8 champion Parkview won its first-round state playoff game on Tuesday, defeating Mill Creek 58-35, the Panthers 16th win in a row.

Not that they need any other advantages, but the Panthers will be playing the Lady Packers at 6 tonight at home in Lilburn, where they are 11-1.

They also will have an extra day of rest as the Lady Packers will be traveling to the Atlanta area for the second time in three days after going to Covington on Wednesday to beat Newton County 48-44.

Parkview’s last loss was back on Dec. 22, when the Panthers fell 85-65 to St. Mary’s of Stockton, Calif., in the Nike Tournament of Champions in Phoenix, Ariz.

Three Region 1-AAAAAA girls teams advanced in the first round.

Region champion Tift County beat Lovejoy 33-29 and will play host to Archer today. Archer beat Duluth 73-49 in the first round.

Runner-up Valdosta knocked off Alcovy 52-43 and will play host to Norcross, which eliminated Shiloh 50-38.

The only Region 1 team to fall in the first round was Lowndes, which was defeated by Region 2 champion Tucker 64-39.

The biggest shock of the first round of the boys tournament came in Tift County where the 24-1 Blue Devils were upset by Newton County, the No. 4 team from Region 2, 52-49.

Tift was one of three Region 1 boys teams to be eliminated in the first round.

Valdosta fell in overtime 60-56 to Rockdale County and Lee County was ousted by Tucker 77-51.

Only Region 1 runner-up Lowndes advanced, knocking off Lovejoy 83-72. The Vikings will meet Norcross in the second round.

The Colquitt County girls ran their overall record to 16-9 with the victory at Newton County, getting a pair of free throws from senior point guard Joneria Grant with 44 seconds remaining to put away the Rams.

Colquitt continues to ride the scoring of freshman Za’Nautica Downs, who led the Lady Packers with 15 points against Newton County. She is averaging 14.3 points a game.

Junior TaKerria Waters came up big with 14 points, 12 rebounds and four blocked shots.

Grant had seven; freshmen Diamond Hall and Kierra Lovett had five and four respectively; and Felisha Bowman had five.

Hall also contributed on the boards, pulling down nine rebounds.

Colquitt will have to battle on the boards against Parkview, which features 6-foot-3 senior Victoria Harris, who averages 10.3 rebounds a game. She also is scoring just a click below 13 points a game.

The Panthers are led in scoring by 5-foot-10 junior Raven Johnson, who averages 15.9 points a game.

The winner will advance to play the North Forsyth-Osborne winner one state quarterfinal.

“We just have to play Lady Packers basketball,” Colquitt County coach Rondesha Williams said. “We need to play defense, give it our best effort and let the chips fall where they may.”