MOULTRIE — If there was a silver lining to the Colquitt County seventh-grade basketball team’s 62-25 loss to Merry Acres Middle School on Saturday at the Charlie A. Gray gymnasium it was that the Packers got plenty of experience against a pressure defense.

The Braves ran a full-court press for all 24 minutes and the Packers had difficulty solving it.

Merry Acres was up 17-0 at the end of the first quarter and 31-6 at the half.

Colquitt actually outscored the visitors 12-11 in the third quarter, but the final six minutes was more like the first half.

The loss snapped the seventh-grade boys’ five-winning streak — a streak that started after 36-26 loss to Merry Acres in Albany back on Nov. 11.

But the Packers did not get their first point until Stacy Blackwell hit a free throw seven seconds into the second quarter.

And the first Colquitt County basket did not come until Ty Smith banked one in off the glass with 1:04 left in the first half.

Smith and Trey Scott led the Packers with six points each. Scott’s total came on a pair of third-quarter 3-pointers. Blackwell had five points, Fred Phillips had a 3-pointer, Rashad Sharpe and Edarius Davis each had two points and Matthew Sailor added a free throw.

The Colquitt County boys, now 5-3, were coming off a 40-17 victory over Hahira on the road on Thursday.

Scott led the Packers against the Vikings with 13 points.

Smith had nine; Sailor, DaQuan Nelson and Rashad Richardson each had four; and Sharp and Ridricus Williams each had two.

The seventh-grade Lady Packers also fell to Merry Acres on Saturday, but unlike the Colquitt County boys, they had a lead at the end of the first quarter, 10-2.

In fact, Colquitt’s girls led 16-13 at the half before the Lady Braves went into overdrive, outscoring the Lady Packers 23-12 in the second half to take a 36-28 victory.

Colquitt outscored the Lady Braves 10-2 in the first quarter, but Merry Acres began taking charge in the second quarter.

Maranda Trim kept the Lady Packers in the game, scoring 21 points.

Cheyenne Reynolds added five poins and led Colquitt’s girls with 10 rebounds.

Ja’nice Sailor had two points.

The loss drops the seventh-grade girls record to 4-3.

The Lady Packers defeated Hahira 22-17 on the road last Thursday.

Trim led Colquitt County with eight points. Reynolds added six.

Dwatesha Love had four and Sailor and Kaneisha Seay each had two.

The seventh-grade teams will be off unitl Friday, Jan. 12, when they meet Lowndes at the C.A. Gray Middle School gymnasium. The girls game will start at 4:30 p.m.

The team’s regular-season finale will be on Tuesday, Jan. 16, against Valdosta, also at the C.A. Gray gymnasium.