MOULTRIE – Marcus Moore had been relatively quiet offensively on Tuesday in the Packers Region 1-6A home game against Valdosta.
Although playing his expected incessant defense, he had not scored since hitting a 3-pointer early in the second quarter.
His next, and last, basket, while a long time coming, was a consequential one.
The junior guard’s short jumper with 24.6 seconds remaining gave the Packers a 44-43 lead and Colquitt held on to take down the Wildcats 45-43.
The victory raises the Colquitt County boys overall record to 12-2.
It also gives the Packers four straight region victories to start the season for the first time since the 1982-1983 team won five straight over Tift County, Thomasville, Valdosta, Lowndes and Central of Thomasville.
That Colquitt County team went on to win the program’s only region championship.
The Packers will attempt to win their fifth region game in a row on Friday when they travel up Highway 319 to meet Tift County.
The Blue Devils, 1-2 in the region, are 11-5 overall after defeating Coffee 44-28 on Tuesday at home.
The Packers win over the Wildcats on Tuesday gave Colquitt County a rare girls/boys doubleheader sweep of Valdosta.
It also gave the 4-0 Packers a two-game lead in the region standings over Valdosta and Richmond Hill, both of whom are 2-2.
Richmond Hill will travel to Valdosta on Friday.
The Packers region winning streak nearly came to an end on their home court on Tuesday after they squandered a 13-point halftime lead.
Colquitt was outscored 16-5 in the third quarter and when Valdosta’s Jabarri Williams scored the first five points of the fourth, the Wildcats had clawed their way to a 38-35 lead with 5:43 left in the game.
But the Packers outscored their visitors 10-5 down the stretch to get the win.
Four of those 10 points came on two free throws each by JaKari Byrd and Kanilyn Jones in a 59-second span that put the Packers up 42-40.
The Wildcats then took a one-point lead on a free throw by Williams and a basket by RaCole Studevan off an offensive rebound with 38 seconds remaining
But 14 seconds left after the Studevan basket, Moore’s jumper from the left side of the key put the Packers up 44-43 and got the Hawgnasium perhaps as loud as it has ever been.
After Moore’s basket, Valdosta ran the clock down to 9.7 before calling timeout just on Colquitt’s side of half court.
But the Packers stole the inbounds pass and Jones hit a free throw with seven seconds left to put the Packers up by two.
A desperation shot by Williams missed and Byrd rebounded to clinch it.
“We had a rough third quarter,” Packers coach Andy Harden said in a bit of an understatement. “We stopped doing what got us to the third quarter.”
The Packers played the first five minutes of that quarter without Byrd, the team’s leading rebounder, who got his third foul with 2:07 left in the first half.
But with Byrd back on the court for the final eight minutes, the Packers dialed up their pressure on the Wildcats.
“We’re always going to play hard-nosed defense,” Harden said. “Our goal is to hold teams under 50 points.”
And the Packers have done that in nine of their 12 victories.
“If we’ll just lock in and play four quarters together, we’ll be tough to beat,” Harden said.
Jones led the Packers with 18 points and hit 3-of-4 free throws in the final quarter.
Cason Harden had 13 points, including nine off three first-half 3-pointers.
Moore and Zi Alridge each had five and Byrd had four, including the two crucial free throws in the fourth quarter.
Williams led Valdosta with 13 points, including nine in the second half.
No other Wildcat had more than eight.