TIFTON – The Lowndes Vikings and Vikettes made school history Friday night in Tifton.

For the first time since the inception of the Lowndes basketball program in 1966, both the Vikings and Vikettes are Region 1-7A champions.

“This is huge for both programs,” Vikettes head coach Antonia Tookes said after the game, “because basketball is on it’s way up at Lowndes. I’m not being cocky, but I would say that we have two good coaches at the helms, and the programs are feeding off that.”

“To see the fruits of our labor tonight – a lot of late nights, lot of early mornings – it just means everything,” Vikings coach Reshon Benjamin said. “To go undefeated in region play, I think we took command of the region tonight and let everybody know, were here.

Tookes and her Vikettes (19-7) overcame the home Lady Blue Devils (15-8) 53-42 in the first of the two championship games of the evening. The Lady Devils had won the last two matchups between the region rivals to hand the Vikettes their only losses in region play. 

In his third year at the Vikings’ helm, Benjamin not only steered his team unscathed through the region gauntlet, but the Vikings’ 22-2 record also ranks among the school’s best ever.

Benjamin also talked how it felt to win the school’s second ever region title, and finally mark this off his team’s to do list.

“Not really surprised, little bit emotional, but at the same time, when you prepare and prepare and prepare, you kind of expect for the results to be a certain way… we’ve been talking about winning the region championship since last offseason.”

As the Vikings blitzed region opponents by an average margin of victory of 16 points, they played all season like they were chasing bigger goals.

And midway through the first quarter of the region championship Friday, it was more clear than ever. Camden got on the board first, but they didn’t score again until the Vikings had ripped off 18-straight points on a run lasting until the second quarter.

The Wildcats got a contested 3-ball to fall on the second possession of the second quarter to make it 18-5, but other than that it was all Vikings again that quarter. 

The Vikings responded to the Wildcats’ 3-pointer with one of their own, moving the ball to find freshman Sam Shoptaw open at the top of the key. It was a 15-3 Viking run from there to close the half.

The Vikings led 33-8 at halftime.

“Tonight it started with our defense and we did a good job scoring baskets on the other end,” Benjamin said. “We’ve been talking since November and nothing’s changed in terms of who we are. Our defensive prowess is what makes us who we are. … It always starts and finishes with our defense. It turns into easy quick transition points.”

The Vikings turned defense into offense plenty of times not just in the first half but in the whole game. As usual, it was the Williams brothers leading the way, senior guards Aaron and JJ.

“I think it always starts with our guard play. They do such a good job of igniting pressure up top and it makes it harder to do anything from that point on.” Benjamin said, once again singing the praises of his two-way guards.

The brothers combined for eight steals, ten assists, and 23 points for the Vikings while controlling the pace of the game on both ends. JJ notched six of the steals, adding to his average of five per game, which is second in the state.

They also combined to score 15 of the Viking’s 33 first half points and assisted on more. Junior forward Marcus Black also had a big scoring first half, throwing down a couple of big dunks to add seven points in the first and four more in the second.

Coming out of halftime the Wildcats were able to find the bottom of the net a few more times in the third behind some tough jump shooting from sophomore wing Earl Murray.

The Wildcats scored 13 in the third and 17 in the fourth but never put much of a dent in the Viking’s 20-plus point lead.

Black finished with 16 points to lead the Vikings. JJ poured in 15 as well as six assists and steals. Aaron added eight points and four assists, while 6-9 senior big man JC Riley added eight more points, eight rebounds, three assists and five blocks.

The Vikings have won 15-straight on their way to the winning the region championship, and Benjamin wants to make sure everyone knows they have no plans of letting that streak end any time soon.

“We went in the locker room after the game and I told them make sure you get used to this feelings, don’t let this be the last trophy you hoist up, you know? Let’s try to keep trending and make a deep playoff run,” Benjamin said. “I know it seems unbelievable for a South team to run through that Atlanta gauntlet, but I think we have the resiliency and the toughness. I believe once we got this first one, the momentum is going. It’s gonna ride on and we’re gonna catch fire. So, to the rest of the state, look out.”

 

Vikettes 53

Lady Blue Devils 42

As mentioned before, the girl’s championship was much closer than the boys was; closer even than the final score might indicate.

The two region rivals spent much of the first half tied up as the Vikettes struggled to put any distance on the Lady Devils despite some hot shooting. They went into halftime up 28-22 behind four threes in a group scoring effort.

The Vikettes shared the ball and were able to score when they needed to, but just like it’s been all season, it was their defense that won them the game. And Friday night that started with keeping the Lady Devils out of transition, according to Tookes.

“Well, we wanted to keep them from getting any transition buckets, and by stopping them from getting transition buckets that ignited us in transition.”

Indeed, in the last two matchups between the teams, both of which the Vikettes lost, the Lady Devils were able to turn the Vikettes over and score on the other end.

The Vikettes took care of the ball for the most part Friday night, and that’s how they built up their second half lead. However, while trying to protect a double-digit lead in the fourth, the Vikettes suffered from some lapses.

“We got in a little fog, I call it “in the fog” sometimes,” Tookes said of the Vikettes late game turnovers. “We get in the fog on the court and it’s like we don’t know what to do. I had to call a timeout and settle them down and tell them what to do to get the ball across the court.”

The Lady Devils scored off another Vikette turnover to cut the lead to six with 5:45 left, but that was the closest the Lady Devils managed to get thanks to some timely cuts and clutch free throw shooting.

The Vikettes sunk 9 of 12 free throws to close the door on any chance of a Lady Devil’s comeback. They were fueled behind Kaci Demps’ perfect 6 of 6 effort at the line.

Demps was one of four Vikettes to finish in double figures in the championship Friday night. The freshman point guard finished with ten points, four assists, and three steals for the Vikettes.

Another freshman guard Aryana Thomas came off the bench to add another ten points, four boards and four steals. Junior center Otaifo Esenabhalu added ten more and led all players on the glass with eleven rebounds and a pair of blocks to go with it. 

Amyah Espanol is the Vikettes leading scorer this season, and she rose to the task again in the region championship, totaling 14 points, four rebounds and assists, and three steals.