VALDOSTA — Next week is the last of the regular season and it’s still too early to call where the boys region tournament might take place.

The boys and girls teams sitting at No. 1 at the end of the campaign  will host their region tournaments. Lowndes is in the driver’s seat for the girls, but at best the boys can be perhaps narrowed to three teams: Colquitt County, Tift County or Valdosta.

Colquitt entered Friday’s game with Lowndes as 1-6A’s top team at 5-2. However, the two in the loss column have been at the hands of second-place Tift (4-2), which included a last-second three-pointer by Quae Bell Tuesday for the Blue Devils to win, 48-46.

Tift’s losses were their first two region contests, to Lowndes and at Camden County. They’ll have a chance to avenge Lowndes Saturday night. That will be extra tough, though, as the Devils played Friday at Richmond Hill, the longest region road trip for them.

Valdosta was 4-3 in 1-6A when they loaded the bus to play at Camden Friday. It’s the only region game of the weekend for both set of Wildcats. Valdosta has won both from Lowndes, plus beaten Richmond Hill and Camden.

Lowndes (2-3), Camden (2-4) and Richmond Hill (2-5) have an uphill climb. Should the Vikings complete the Tift sweep, that would throw the region into even more confusion. Besides Tift, the Vikes have a victory over Camden.

So far, the girls region has been a runaway for Lowndes. The Vikettes entered Friday not only 5-0 — and 16-2 overall — the average region game score has been 62-36. Only Camden has been within 20 points.

However, Lowndes has still not met the second-place team in 1-6A, Richmond Hill. Both games will be next week.

Richmond Hill’s Lady Wildcats were 5-2 and 15-4 overall heading into Friday’s contest with Tift. Their region losses have been to Colquitt (50-37), and in their last, to Camden (50-43). Camden is not out of the race, either, at 4-2. The coastal schools’ records are very similar with Richmond Hill at 15-4 to Camden’s 15-6.

Though Colquitt has stumbled somewhat at 3-4 in Region 1-6A, Amira Walters-Smith is its scoring leader, averaging 19.1 points per game. Lowndes’ Aryana Thomas and Kaci Demps are second on the statboard, at 15.4 and 15.1, respectively Tift’s Jalaya Miller is averaging 13.3 per contest.

For the boys, Jabarri Williams has been the region’s best at putting points on the board at 17.6 per contest in stats posted on MaxPreps. Kam Jackson of Lowndes is second at 12.9 with Travis Herrin of Camden third at 12.8.

The final week of region basketball sees:

Tuesday, February 4

Colquitt County at Valdosta

Richmond Hill at Lowndes

Friday, February 7

Camden County at Tift County

Lowndes at Richmond Hill

Saturday, February 8

Lowndes at Camden County

Valdosta at Tift County