TIFTON – Led by seniors Jarcqves Williams and JC Riley, the Lowndes Vikings opened region play with a scrappy 59-38 win over the reigning region champions Tift County Blue Devils Friday night.

In fact, over the last decade only once has Tift County failed to win the region, but this season the Vikings and head coach Reshon Benjamin look poised to take a shot at the crown after a 9-2 start, and a 1-0 start to region play.

“This was our first region road test – we know how much this means,” Benjamin said. “Our mantra all week has been region games count double. They mean that much.”

To start region play with a big win on the road, Benjamin said the team needed to “amp up the defense,” and in the first half they were doing just that, holding the Blue Devils to only 12 points.

The Vikings went into halftime with a 23-12 lead, but the Blue Devils spent the first five minutes of the second half chipping away, until with three minutes left in the third quarter they had cut it to only 5.

With the Blue Devils threatening to take over the game with a 31-26 score, the Vikings shut the door on the Blue Devils, closing the quarter on a 10-2 run spearheaded by Jarcqves Williams’s aggressive defense and tough playmaking.

The Vikings and their senior point guard continued that run into the fourth quarter, until he was checked out with about four minutes remaining.

That was only after Williams knifed through the Blue Devil defense for an impossible twisting lay-up with English off the glass to push the lead further.

Williams followed that up by again penetrating the paint and this time finding sophomore Ruben Compton in the corner to put the Blue Devils to bed, with the score at 54-32.

“The ultimate warrior. That’s his [Williams’] nickname: the ultimate warrior,” Benjamin said. “He does one or two things per game that make you just go ‘wow’. You see him man, he’s flying around, he’s on the ground every other play.”

Williams led the Vikings with eight steals and eight assists, while adding seven points, but Williams leads the Vikings in other ways too – setting the tone for the style they like to play.

“With defense being our calling card, he’s like the head of it. He makes sure we get into what we’re trying to do,” Benjamin said.

The other leader for the Vikings on both ends of the floor was big man JC Riley. It was clear from the tip that the Blue Devils had no answer for Riley’s size on the glass as he snagged 19 rebounds.

Many of Riley’s 13 points came from the working the glass, as his 9 offensive boards led to numerous second chance points for him and the rest of the Vikings.

With Riley’s dominance down low on both ends, and the Viking’s guards’ intense pressure the whole game, the Blue Devils couldn’t keep up, and the Vikings led all 32 minutes of the contest.

“Our calling card has been defense all year long,” Benjamin said. “We wanted to amp it up a couple notches tonight, just to make sure we got the win. Funny things can happen on the road, hostile crowds, you may not get calls to go your way, shot may not be falling, but if you play defense you can still win.”

The Vikings are back at home this Wednesday, Jan. 12 at 7:30 p.m., to welcome the Thomasville Bulldogs (11-2).

Tift girls 62

LHS girls 54

The Lady Devils were letting it fly Friday night as they connected on nine triples to down the Vikettes 62-54 in Tifton.

When they didn’t connect, the Lady Devils were flying in for offensive rebounds and second chance points.

The Vikettes allowed a few too many of those long rebounds to fall to the Lady Devils to get a region win on the road Friday, but Head coach Antonia Tookes knows how important it is to control the boards in tough games.

“If we’re going to compete in this region, we have to rebound the basketball,” Tookes said. “We did better [rebounding] in the second half, but we didn’t do our best. We can work harder than that.”

The poor rebounding and turnovers from the Vikettes had them in a 30-18 hole at halftime. But the Vikettes came out of the locker room playing like a new team.

A quick 8-0 tear from the Vikettes had the score 30-26 early in the third quarter, but the Lady Devils always seemed to have an answer. 

Big buckets from junior guard/forward Amyah Espanol and freshman guard Kaci Demps kept the Vikettes in striking distance even after the Lady Devils responded to the big run, but the Lady Devils hit four times from deep in a big third quarter still up double digits, 49-39.

Down double digits late, it was the freshman Demps who continued to provide the spark for the Vikettes – relentlessly driving and kicking to shooters and hitting shots herself. Demps finished with a game-high four triples and 17 points for the Vikettes.

“I saw a whole lot of heart because she’s so small, but she played big tonight,” Tookes said, praising the 5-5 guard. “We told her in the locker room she was the person that was ready to play and she kept us in the game.”

Junior guard Faith Johnson added 15 points and five rebounds and Espanol finished with nine points.

“They showed a lot of heart…. but we have to try harder next time,” Tookes said. “It’s a region game, they protected their court and that’s what they’re supposed to do. When they come to us we have to protect our court.”

The Vikettes are back home next Friday, Jan. 14 for another region matchup against Camden (5-8), with tipoff set for 6 p.m.