By Kyle Dean/sports editor
SYLVESTER — Rod Downs led a balanced Tift scoring attack with 12 points, and the Blue Devils improved to 6-1 on the season, with a 70-50 rout of Worth County Friday night in Sylvester.
The Lady Devils won the opener by a 58-49 score to also improve to 6-1 before Christmas break.
The Blue Devils jumped out to another big first quarter lead just as was the case in Tuesday’s win over the Rams in Tifton. Tift led 9-2 with 4:24 remaining in the quarter, due to pressure defense. Tae Jolly scored the first five points, and the Devils also got baskets from Breon Dixon and Jerome Graydon.
After a Josh Alford three-pointer pulled the Rams to within four points, Tift again went on a big 10-1 run to extend the lead to 19-6. Donnell Tuff, Vernon Moore and Malcolm Dixon had field goals in the run for Tift.
Worth County got to within seven in the second quarter after back-to-back baskets by Dee Nether, but Tift outscored the Rams 15-3 in the final five minutes of the second quarter.
Alford kept the Rams within striking distance in the third quarter, as he scored eight of Worth’s 18 points in the period. The Devils were paced by baskets from Graydon, Moore, Coby Neloms, Breon Dixon, Micah McCant, Downs and Malcolm Dixon.
Tift held a 55-38 lead after three periods, and after five straight points from Downs with 5:40 remaining in the game, each coach began substituting liberally.
Besides Downs’ points, Moore had 11 for Tift and Neloms and Graydon each had nine points. Malcolm Dixon chipped in with seven points.
In the girls’ game, Tift County played perhaps the best game in the Julie Conner era in defeating the Lady Rams.
On Tuesday, Worth outscored Tift 12-2 after one quarter of play, but on Friday night, Tift raced out to an 18-5 lead and never looked back.
“The difference in this game from last game (a 49-43 loss on Tuesday) was intensity,” Conner said.
Raven Denson, Brakia Bateman, Amber McKenzie, Jessica Covington and Noelle Okongwu contributed in the Tift 14-0 run to start the game. Worth finally scratched the scoreboard on a free throw by Dominique Jackson.
A Jackson basket brought the Lady Rams to within six at 22-16, but Tift outscored Worth 11-0 over the final three minutes of the half.
McKenzie, Okongwu and Raven Ashley each had scores for Tift in the run.
Worth made on final push in the third quarter, after a three-pointer from Christie Smith again got the Lady Rams to within six points. But the Lady Devils responded behind the play of McKenzie, who had a game-high 22 points on the night, to push the lead back out to 15 points.
Worth shot 9-of-31 from behind the three point line.
McKenzie also had nine rebounds, five steals, and three assists on the night.
Okongwu had her first career double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds, and Jessica Covington added five points and six rebounds.
Smith paced Worth with 15 points and Kim Evans added 12 points for the Lady Rams.
Both the boys and girls teams will travel to Jones County Dec. 28 for the Holiday Bank Classic in Gray.
