MOULTRIE — The Colquitt County boys and girls basketball teams are both on a roll right now and the streaks couldn’t have come at a better time.

The Packers and Lady Packers open Region 1-AAAAA play tonight at Houston County, the first of three region dates in the next five days, two of which are on the road.

Colquitt will play its region home openers on Saturday when Coffee visits the Gladys Espy Gymnasium.

Then the teams will get on the bus and travel to Valdosta to meet the Wildcats and Lady Cats next Tuesday.

Colquitt’s boys will take a two-game winning streak into their meeting with the Bears tonight.

After knocking off Westover 54-52 last Saturday in the final game of the first Colquitt County Roundball Classic, the Packers took care of visiting Thomas County Central on Tuesday, winning 48-43 to raise their season record to 6-5.

The Packers have played their last two games without Orion Ponder, who is nursing a sore back after a fall in the first quarter of last Friday’s game against South Miami.

The senior point guard is expected back for tonight’s game.

Ponder is averaging 6 points a game, but is counted on primarily to get the ball to the team’s leading scorers: seniors Rashawn Melvin, Andrew Wallace and Channing Hudson.

Melvin leads the Packers in scoring, hitting 12 points a game and he leads the team in 3-pointers with 21. He has been in double-figures in eight of the Packers 11 games and has a high of 23, scored against Rossview High of Clarksville, Tenn., in the Citizens First Classic in Bowling Green, Ky., last month.

Wallace, the Packers 6-foot-5 center, is averaging 11.2 points and scored 20 against South Miami and 21 against Westover in last weekend’s tournament.

His performance landed him on the all-tournament team.

Guard Channing Hudson is averaging just under 10 points a game. He has a high-game of 20 against Worth County in Sylvester and hit 14 against Boyd Anderson and 13 against Thomas County Central in the last week.

Packers coach Kirven Davis has not been afraid to use plenty of players in recent games, with Dannie Hunt, Nolan Whyte starting and Eugene Woods, Duke Banks and Chantting Stevenson getting court time off the bench.

The Packers had little success against Houston County last year, falling 59-49 and 68-65 in its two meetings with the Bears.

After winning three in a row, Houston is coming off a 70-50 loss to Class AAA Perry in the championship of the Bear Brawl tournament and will take a 5-5 record into the game.

Coach Greg Nix’s Bears, who were 6-4 in the region last year, are led by Jon Nolton and Vic King.

Colquitt County’s girls opened with three straight victories, then suffered three losses in a row.

Since then, the Lady Packers have won four of six and three of their last four to raise their record to 7-5.

Colquitt will continue to try to get the ball inside to Taquella Coates.

The 6-foot junior forward is averaging 14.1 points a game and scored 50 points in the Roundball Classic, making the all-tournament team.

Coates also is the team’s leading rebounder.

Sophomore Nicolle Thomas is averaging 11.7 points and leads the team with 14 3-pointers.

Nikki Hudson, who also was named to all-Roundball Classic team, runs the offense, continues to play tenacious defense and is averaging 7.9 points a game.

Tough-rebounding Tiffany Troupe will join Coates in the front court. Freshman Shay Lovett is starting at the other guard position.

She is replacing Laquita Smith, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in the game at Bainbridge on Dec. 12.

Carly Moore and Ashley Patillo have been the first players off the bench for Colquitt County girls coach Joe Parker.

The Lady Packers are coming off a 21-10 season that included a sweep of Houston County.

The Lady Bears, who were 5-5 in the region last season, fell to the Lady Packers by 48-45 and 60-46 scores.

Houston’s girls are 6-4 and are led by post player Tonia Williams.

Also tonight, Warner Robins will play its first games as a member of Region 1-AAAAA, with the Demons and Demonettes traveling to play Lowndes.

On Saturday, in addition to the Colquitt County-Coffee match up in Moultrie, Valdosta will travel to Houston County.

Six region teams will be in action on Tuesday when Colquitt County visits Valdosta, Tift County goes to Warner Robins and Coffee travels to Houston. Lowndes will be off on Tuesday.

After Saturday night’s meeting with Coffee, Colquitt County will play at home next on Tuesday, Jan. 16, when Lowndes visits the Gladys Espy Gymnasium.

On Thursday, the Colquitt County ninth-grade basketball team opened the 2007 part of its schedule with a 54-39 loss at Thomasville.

Dominique Pressley led the Packers with 14 points. Nathaniel Hill added 12.

Jeremy Downs had five, Tyrell Wright and Derrell Ward each had three and Quin Roberson had two.

The freshmen Packers, now 4-3, will go on the road again on Monday when they travel back to Thomasville to face Thomas County Central.

The ninth-graders will play their next home game at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 20, against Lowndes.