MOULTRIE — The Colquitt County girls basketball team won its first three game of season last month, but December has not been nearly as nice to the Lady Packers as was November.

In fact, on Dec. 9, in their first game of the month and holding a 3-0 record in the second quarter of a game against Worth County — a team they had already defeated — the Lady Packers lost junior guard Laquita Smith to a season-ending knee injury.

Colquitt’s girls are 1-4 since then and won just one of three games in the Great Southern Shootout in Macon last week.

“We are playing average to better-than-average defense,” Lady Packers coach Joe Parker said on Wednesday. “Offensivley, we got to stay in some kind of transition. We’ve got to stop being so passive. We have to be active on offense if we want to be successful.”

The Lady Packers will open play in the first Colquitt County Roundball Classic at 7 tonight when they meet Boyd Anderson High from Lauderdale Lakes in Broward County, Fla.

Colquitt County will play South Miami High at 5 p.m. on Friday and will close out the 2006 portion of its schedule with a 6:30 p.m. game on Saturday against Westover’s Lady Patriots.

Coming off a 21-10 record and a spot in the state tournament’s elite eight last year, Colquitt County expected to have a solid starting five. But depth was going to be a problem and since Smith went down, the offense has struggled.

Although Colquitt scored freely in a 61-39 victory over Meadowcreek in the Great Southern Shootout in Macon, the Lady Packers did not reach the 40-point plateau in 72-38 loss to Carver High of Montgomery, Ala., and a 48-36 loss to Parkway High of Florida in their tournament finale.

Taquella Coates has been a force inside and is leading the team in both scoring and rebounding.

The junior post player is averaging 13 points a game and had 42 in the three games in the Great Southern Shootout in Macon.

Her most productive game of the season came in the tournament-opening 72-38 loss to Carver High of Montgomery, Ala., when she scored 22 points.

Sophomore Nicolle Thomas is averaging 12 points a game and has high of 20 against Worth County in Sylvester.

Thomas and Coates are expected to be joined in the starting lineup by Nikki Hudson, Tiffany Troupe and freshman Shay Lovett.

Ashley Patillo and Carly Moore are expected to see action coming off the bench.

The girls bracket of the Colquitt County tournament was thrown into disarray when Suwannee High of Lake City, Fla., announced on Wednesday it would not participate.

The Boyd Anderson girls will play twice today to fill one of Suwannee spots.

Tournament officials hope to have another girls team in the field by Friday, Parker said.