VALDOSTA — The two boys’ basketball games this season in the storied Valdosta-Lowndes saga have lived up to their billing.

Jan. 13, it took Lowndes an overtime period to come away with a victory against its archrival Valdosta High, and Friday the Vikings escaped Valdosta’s gym with a two-point victory, leaving coach Kingston Clark with a smile of relief.

For Clark and the players, the relief won’t last long as the two cross-town schools meet for a third time today at 8:30 p.m. in Tifton.

This time the stakes are higher during the first round of the Region IAAAAA playoffs.

Clark said beating Valdosta a third time will be more difficult than the first two.

“It’s hard beating team two times in a row, much less three times in a row,” Clark said. “We were able to do it both times, and both times it came down to the wire.

“In a cross-town rivalry, you throw records or whatever out the window. You have to come out and play.”

While Clark feels that winning for a third time may be tough, Valdosta’s coach John Miller says there isn’t pressure lifted off his team.

“We’ve been so inexperienced that we’ve played so many close games, and for whatever reason down the stretch things didn’t work out,” Miller said. “We’ve been in every game, so I don’t think that they’ll feel any more or any less pressure going into the tournament with all the close games we’ve had this year.”

While traditional thoughts are thrown out in any rivalry game, Clark says the Vikings will have to improve from the last two meetings to come away with a third consecutive victory over the Wildcats.

“We definitely are going to have to shoot the ball better,” Clark said. “Looking at stats, after the ball game we shot three for 20 from the three-point line. Last time we shot three three-pointers, we lost by 25 points to Moultrie.

“It was truly a blessing to come away with the victory against Valdosta.”

The Wildcats will look to Bryan Brown, who scored 25 points, to come up big against the Vikings once again.

“We have to shoot better, and play better defense,” Clark said. “Bryan Brown hurt us both times.”

While the Vikings and Wildcats boy’s teams will be looking toward a game against each other, the girl’s teams are taking different routes during the playoffs.

The Wildcats will square off against Colquitt at 7 p.m. today.

The winner of that matchup will move on to face Lowndes at 4 p.m. Friday.

After earning the region’s No. 2 seed, Lowndes received a bye in the first round.

“It’s hard to predict,” Lowndes coach Shan Garner said. “Valdosta improved as the season went on, and if it’s Moultrie they’ve been our toughest matchup. They’re a similar team — athletic, quick and strong inside, and they have a good guard in Ashley Stafford.”

The Wildcats haven’t fared well against the Packers this season, losing 56-33 and 67-35.

“We did not play well against them either time, whether it be at home or away,” Valdosta coach Julie McCutcheon said. “They probably beat us the worst both times we faced them than any team.

“I think right now we’ve gone back and re-evaluated a lot of things about our defense.”

The Wildcats will look to give less open court layups to the Packers, as well as boxing out a good offensive rebounding team.

“We have three or four players we have to watch,” McCutcheon said. “They have a lot of threats that we have tried to work on all week.”

Even though the Wildcats went through the season winless in region play, McCutcheon preached to her team that the playoffs are a new season.

“This is the third and most important part of the season,” McCutcheon said. “Even though we were winless during the season, we can still make it happen I think.

“At this point there are some teams overlooking us, and I think we had a good week of practice this week in preparation for the tournament.”

Even though the Wildcats were winless and earned the last seed, the girl’s tournament will be tough with a number of teams capable of coming out on top.

“There is a very dangerous team on any given night,” Garner said. “It’s got the making of a good tournament.

“It’s entertainment for the fans, but nerve-wracking for the coaches.”







Correction: Lowndes’ leading scorer in its 60-58 victory over Valdosta last Saturday was Kevin Wright. Wright scored 22 points for the Vikings in the win.