MOULTRIE — James Trimble was sitting in the office of Packers head basketball coach Kirven Davis and watching tape of a recent game when he was asked if the Packers felt they had a chance to defeat Lowndes on Tuesday when the two Region 1-AAAAA rivals in Valdosta.

“Last year, we probably wouldn’t,” said Trimble, whose 19 points and 19 rebounds led the Packers to a ringing 79-53 upset of the Vikings. “This year, we did.”

The victory moved the Packers into a second-place tie in the region standings with the Vikings.

Each have 3-2 records and trail 4-0 Tift County in the standings.

Both have tough jobs ahead of them tonight.

Lowndes will be back at home against Coffee, still dangerous despite it 1-4 region record. The Trojans fell 55-54 to Tift County on Tuesday in a game it led most of the game.

The Vikings beat the Trojans 65-60 in their first meeting.

The Packers go on the road to Valdosta in what before Saturday may have been a game many would have expected the Packers to win with little trouble.

Valdosta went into the season with just just one player with any appreciable experience and the Packers exploited the Wildcats in a 58-45 victory on Jan. 7.

And the Wildcats were winless in the region until they took on Houston County last Saturday and pulled a 60-52 upset.

The Wildcats had lost two straight games in overtime before knocking off the Bears.

And the Wildcats built on the win over Houston County by defeating Lee County on Tuesday in Leesburg to raise their overall record to 6-9.

“We can’t take them for granted,” Davis said. “We know if we can win the next two region games, we’ll be in a good position.

“If we get Valdosta and Tifton, we’ll be fine.”

If the Packers play as they did on Tuesday, they could put themselves in a position to make some noise in the regular season and the region tournament.

Colquitt scored the first eight points of the game against Lowndes, saw the Vikings pull to within three at 10-7, then reel off a 10-3 run that left their hosts reeling.

“We got on them early,” Davis said of his team, which will take a record of 10-6 overall and 3-2 in the region against the Wildcats tonight. “We went inside and James got us going.”

Trimble had 19 points and 19 rebounds to help discourage the Vikings. Eight of those points came on four dunks, including one in the fourth quarter in which he did a 180 before flipping the ball over his head and on to the glass.

The senior center said on Thursday that the Packers had jumped out like that several other times this season, but this time were able to play a complete game.

Davis said the most difficult part of the game for him was halftime, wondering how his team would respond in the final two quarters after leading by 17 at the break.

“I think we showed a lot of character in the second half,” the Packers first-year coach said. “We acted like we were used to it.”

Colquitt also got 17 points from Andrew Wallace and 15 from Antwan Tuff.

The Packers controlled the boards and, in a departure from earlier games, did their job from the free throw line, hitting 88 percent.

The Packers played region-leading Tift County close throughout their game on Tuesday before falling 57-52 and lost by five to Thomasville on Saturday despite playing without Tuff and Jeremy DeBruce, both starters.

Davis said he thinks his team is now going into games prepared to win.

“It’s a mind-set,” he said. “And it makes a difference.”

In the other Region 1-AAAAA games tonight, Tift County will host Houston County.