VALDOSTA — Lowndes and Grayson meet again on the basketball courts tonight. The Crimson Coliseum brings this rematch from last year’s semifinals, with tickets at $10 each. All fans, except babies in arms, must have a ticket. Tickets will be sold at the gate (cash only) or online via GoFan. Tip-off is 6 p.m.

Tuesday’s winner will face either Cherokee or Hillgrove in the 2025 semifinals, which will be back at Georgia State. Other quarterfinals are Carrollton at North Forsyth and Newton at Buford.

The Georgia High School Association’s universal coin flip determined the location for tonight’s game. Both teams won their region tournaments — Lowndes in Region 1 and Grayson in Region 4.

Since their very bad week to close out the regular season, the Vikettes have been nothing but lights out since.

The challenge is a big one.

Led by Region 4 Player of the Year Tatum Brown and Co-Defensive Player of the Year Tamera Rudolph, the Lady Rams are not only 28-1, they have won 28 consecutive games. Cherokee, who slipped past Grayson 68-62, is also an elite-eight team in 6A.

Grayson has been nothing short of dominant this year. The average score of their games has been 70-45. They have played their share of close games, but almost all have been against powers from other states.

Excluding the loss, Georgia teams have been within 10 points of the Lady Rams a mere three times. In the past month, only Newton in the region finals as been within 19.

But Lowndes will have to forget all of that for 32 minutes of court time tonight. They must also forget last year’s 41-point loss in the semifinals game at Georgia State.

The Vikettes have been fantastic at putting losses behind them this year.

During a four-game stretch from Feb. 1-8, Lowndes lost three Region 1 games (to Tift County, Richmond Hill and Camden County), knocking them out of the top seed and from hosting the conference tournament.

Forced to travel to Camden for region, the Vikettes avenged Richmond Hill, 45-34, then knocked off upstart Colquitt County for the third time this year, 51-39, to win the region tournament again.

At that, they survived Marietta 66-62 before winning over Mill Creek in the second round.

Leadership has been superb for Lowndes. Kaci Demps was named Region Player of the Year and both she and Aryana Thomas have reached 1,000. In her first full year as head coach Courtney Fleming has gone 22-5. Fleming could reach her second consecutive final four.