VALDOSTA — In the clash of Region 1AAAAA’s top basketball teams, the Vikings split with Tift County Tuesday.

The girls were able to overcome a three-year losing streak to the Blue Devils in a 45-36 win, and the boys fell behind early in a 60-51 loss.

Having been defeated in two regular season meetings and eliminated from the playoffs by Tift County a season ago, the Lowndes girls’ team overcame that and an early deficit for the win.

“It was a huge hurdle to overcome for us,” Lowndes coach Shan Garner said. “It’s a huge wall for us to overcome. Tift is always well disciplined and well coached.

“It’s a huge win.”

Tift County jumped to a 5-2 lead, keeping the Vikettes from getting easy buckets inside thanks to a 2-1-2 zone defense.

The Vikettes eventually overcame their shooting woes and turned an 11-7 deficit into a 17-13 lead.

“It’s no secret that we’re not a great outside shooting team,” Garner said. “All week we spent time on shooting drills.”

The Vikettes were able to grab the lead in the second quarter and keep it until the final whistle.

Krystal Thomas hit a shot, drove for an open layup after a steal and made a three-pointer all in succession to give the Vikettes their initial lead.

Thomas kept up her play all game, leading Lowndes with 13 points.

Thomas’s frontcourt mates Star Bradley and Casey Parker also played pivotal parts in the game both on offense and defense.

Bradley scored 12 points and had pivotal rebounds while Parker played tough defense against Tift’s Lindsay Welker and hit key shots in the second quarter.

“Those two were big,” Garner said. “Casey hit those two elbow shots, and those offensive rebounds by Starr were great.”

In the second quarter, Parker helped to beat the Blue Devils’ zone defense with two mid-range jumpers that sparked 11-4 Vikettes’ run.

The post play of Lowndes’ girl’s team also kept Welker from being a factor.

“Welker is a dynamite player — we had to do a great job and beat them to the spot,” Garner said. “I’m very proud of our post players.”

While the girls’ team was able to overcome a slow start in the first quarter, the Lowndes boys’ team was not.

The Vikings fell behind 17-3 to Tift County at the end of the first quarter and never came within five points.

“We came out flat,” Lowndes’ boys coach Kingston Clark said. “It’s hard to come back from that.’

While the Vikings were down in the first quarter, they never played like they were out, fighting back behind the three-point shot and athletic defensive play.

“We did come back to make a ball game out of it,” Clark said. “But, we couldn’t make a shot or stop them from scoring.”

The Vikings made runs at the Blue Devils in part to six three pointers, including two apiece by Jarriod Johnson and A.J. Brown.

“We had to fight back hoping to get back in it,” Clark said. “As many as we made, we missed twice as many.”

With the Tift County leading 47-40 with under five minutes to play, the Blue Devils seemed to head for the goal line thanks to the play of the night by Justin Brownlee.

After a missed shot by Tift County, Brownlee jumped seemingly out of nowhere and in one motion plucked the ball out of the air and slammed it with two hands.

The Blue Devils got big play from their big men as Justin Brownlee and Terrell Johnson scored 16 points each.

Tuesday was Terrell Johnson’s first game with the Blue Devils as he was recently made eligible after a transfer from Ware County.

After the put-back dunk by Brownlee, the Vikings looked like they were moving faster than the action missing shots and turning the ball over.

“In the crucial situations we had the opportunity to get in the ball game and we couldn’t handle it,” Clark said. “We kept coughing the ball up.”

The Vikings were led offensively by Larry Jackson with 12 points and Jarriod Johnson and Brown with 10 each.

The Vikings’ next game will be against Valdosta Saturday at Lowndes High.