MOULTRIE — The Colquitt County girls basketball team put itself back in the running for at least regular-season Region 1-AAAAA championship tie on Saturday by knocking off Lowndes 56-53 at the Gladys Espy Gymnasium.

The victory broke a 14-game winning streak for the Vikettes, who had not lost since falling to Houston County 55-38 for its only other region loss.

The Vikettes, who are 20-3 overall, fall to 6-2 in the region with games at Tift County, also 6-2, on Tuesday and at Valdosta next Saturday.

Colquitt’s girls raised their region record to 6-3 and must travel to Douglas to meet Coffee on Tuesday. The Lady Packers are 15-7 overall.

Colquitt’s boys were unable to complete the sweep, losing to the Vikings 59-54.

The Packers have now lost three in a row, all in the region, to fall to 4-5 in the region and 11-10 overall.

The Lowndes boys had lost three region games in a row since falling to the Packers 79-53 on Jan. 17 in Valdosta.

The Vikings are now 4-4 in the region and 15-5 overall.

The Lady Packers got 19 points and 13 rebounds from senior Ashley Stafford to win a game in which they never trailed after taking a 16-14 lead on a pair of Stafford free throws in the first quarter.

The Lady Packers led 18-14 after the first quarter, 35-29 at the half and 45-36 after three quarters before holding off a late Vikettes rally.

Lowndes closed to within two at 52-50 on a free throw by Markesha Close with 1:01 left.

But Dorothy Strong hit two free throws with 29.4 seconds left to put the Lady Packers up by four.

Then, after Close hit a 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds left, Strong was fouled again and hit two more free throws to give the Lady Packers their three-point margin.

Taquella Coates had 11 points and eight rebounds for the Lady Packers.

Nicolle Thomas had nine, Strong added eight, Nikki Hudson had five and Jessica Lemus and Tiffany Troupe each had two points.

Hudson added seven rebounds and Troupe came off the bench to grab six.

Close led the Vikettes with 14 points.

But Lowndes hurt itself at the free throw line, hitting just 15-of-33.

Colquitt’s girls hit 14-of-28.

Colquitt’s boys trailed the Vikings by just two at the half, but finally took a 35-33 lead on a pair of Andrew Wallace free throws with 2:09 left in the third quarter.

But Lowndes scored 10 of the final 12 points of the quarter and led by eight heading into the final eight minutes.

Colquitt County will travel to Douglas on Tuesday to meet Coffee in the teams’ final region games of the season.

Antwan Tuff had 13 points for the Packers. Wallace added 12.

James Trimble had 11 rebounds.