TIFTON — Christmas is not quite here yet for the Tift County Blue Devils basketball teams. The squads still have Saturday games before St. Nicholas slides down the chimney.

Tift County will be at Norcross High this weekend as part of the Hawks-Naismith Holiday Classic ’17. The Lady Devils get started first, playing Lovejoy at noon, while the Blue Devils will have to wait until 6 p.m. to face Newton.

The Lovejoy Lady Wildcats are considered one of the best teams in the state.

“They are loaded,” said Tift head coach Julie Conner.

Lovejoy won its first nine games of the season before running into Stephenson last Saturday. Stephenson won the star-studded battle, 56-53. Until then, Lovejoy had been winning its games by an average score of 73-41.

Much of that success can be attributed to guard play. Conner said two Lovejoy players at that position are major Division I collegiate prospects. One of those guards is Genesis Bryant, who was voted second team All-Metro last season by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Bryant is only a sophomore this year.

Conner has advised her team, who improved to 8-2 Tuesday with a 60-37 victory over Cook, to not be awed by Lovejoy’s record.

She said she told them, “They lace up their shoes the same as you.” The team motto this year has been to “respect all, fear none.”

Through the season’s 10 games, Kaysie Harrelson is the Lady Devils’ leading scorer. She is averaging 10.6 points per game. Nicky Jones is averaging 9.4 points and Joslyn Reyes is contributing 8.2 points per game.

The Tift-Newton contest will be a rematch of last year’s state quarterfinals.

In that game, the Blue Devils delivered a 75-66 win in Covington en route to winning the state championship.

Newton will enter Saturday with a 7-2 record to Tift’s 7-3.

The Rams have lost their last two games, each by a single point, to Grayson and Mountain View.

Like Tift, Newton lost many players to graduation.

The biggest name returning for the Rams is Ashton Hagans, Devils head coach Chris Wade said.

Hagans, a junior point guard, is already getting plenty of looks from colleges.

Though not as stacked as a year ago, Wade said, “They’ll be bigger than us.”

Wade’s squad is still finding its rhythm. He said he had yet to have his full team together for a single game this season. Football, suspensions and injuries have kept pieces of the lineup out.

The Devils were dealt another blow earlier in the week.

Wade said Deshonn Chaney, who gave the team quality minutes and eight points in a 54-52 win over Coffee, is out for the season with a knee injury.

Montavious Terrell has been Tift’s leading scorer, averaging 13.3 points per game. Marquavious Johnson has contributed 8.9 points per contest.

The Blue Devils and Lady Devils will get a short Christmas break. They will be back in action starting next Thursday in the McDonald’s Invitational in Tifton.