MOULTRIE — The Colquitt County girls basketball team could get a glimpse of what the rest of the season might look like, not when they play Dougherty today and Worth County on Friday, but when they get the score from the first Region 1-7A game.

That game will be played on Friday and will feature Tift County at Lowndes.

The region girls race is expected to be an interesting one.

There might not be, at this point, a definitive favorite.

Colquitt County and Camden County are both 11-3 in non-region games with still a week to go before they open their region schedules.

Julie Conner’s defending region champion Tift County girls are 10-4. Lowndes is 6-6.

All will be seeking an edge heading into the region schedule and, starting Feb. 9 at Lowndes, the region tournament.

The Lady Packers have an early favorite for a repeat region Player of the Year in junior Za’Nautica Downs, who is averaging 23.3 points a game this season and has put up 1,218 in her career.

Downs plays hard on both ends of the court, comes up big on the boards and can either slice through to the basket or cut it loose accurately from well behind the arc.

But opponents who expend too much time and effort trying to keep Downs in the corral might ultimately find themselves on the wrong side of the final score.

Fellow junior Diamond Hall appears to be thriving quite well in the considerable shadow cast by Downs.

And she is, perhaps, emerging from it, creating perplexing problems for the Lady Packers’ foes.

After averaging 4.8 points a game as a freshman and 11.0 last season as the region’s Offensive Player of the Year, Hall has continued her climb to a place among south Georgia’s elite players.

She is averaging 18.2 points and has put up 20 or more seven times, including a season-high 33 at Worth County.

In the Lady Packers’ 14 games, she has failed to reach double-digits just once, and that was in the 64-34 win at Dougherty on Dec. 3.

She is averaging 10.4 rebounds a game, has handed out 55 assists and was named to the all-Vereen Rehabilitation Center Shoot-Out team last week.

Oh, and she also hit two free throws with 0.1 seconds remaining to beat Bainbridge 29-28.

“You can’t ignore her,” Colquitt County coach Rondesha Williams says. “She can flat out play.”

And, like Downs, Hall is blossoming in the Lady Packers style of play.

“My kids are comfortable playing defense and running the floor,” Williams said.

Two of Colquitt’s losses came against Westlake and Southwest DeKalb, teams that had significant size advantages inside.

The loss against Valdosta was harder for Williams, and her players, to take.

“We didn’t compete,” Williams said. “We let Valdosta have their way.

“But the kids told me that that game was their fault. They weren’t ready to play. They accepted the responsibility. That tells me a lot about them. The next night, they came out and took care of business.”

The Lady Packers also send out Akia Sutton, Kiarra Lovett and Abiyah Spencer and are getting improved work off the bench from senior Ty’Asia McNeal, Eriyona Stokes, Tionna Hunt and Tim’mya Sanders.

After today’s 6 p.m. meeting at home against Dougherty, the Lady Packers will be back on the William Bryant Court on Friday to play Worth County.

Colquitt defeated the Lady Rams, now 2-9, 64-24 last month.

The Lady Packers will travel to meet Lee County, currently 6-7, next Tuesday before opening region play at Tift County on Friday Jan. 13.