MARIETTA — Tift County was not the only one Wednesday night. All of Region 1-6A’s boys were eliminated from the state tournament in the first round, and three of its four girls teams.

Walton came in having lost five games, three of them to top seed Wheeler. At their own gym Wednesday, they could not miss from three-point range and ended the Blue Devils’ season 67-31.

Tift did have a lead in the contest, 4-0 on a Kaden Lawson hook shoot. By the end of the quarter, however, it was 10-6 in the Raiders’ favor.

The second is when the contest really took off for Walton. They had a 12-0 run at quarter’s start, and an 8-0 run to close it out. Inside was the only place that consistently worked for Tift and Lawson had eight first-half points and Cordell Nelson had four.

A shortened fourth frame saw head coach Tommy Blackshear exclusively play the bench. Like his teammates, Haven McMiller played strong inside, scoring five.

Lawson scored 12 for Tift and Nelson added 9 and McMiller had 5. Rounding out scoring were Kamari Holloman and Jarvis Howard at 2 apiece and Ben Hill with 1.

Around the region, Wheeler defeated Colquitt County 90-38, Etowah won over Valdosta 61-53 and region champion Lowndes fell to Cherokee, 56-50. The Lowndes Vikettes won over Mill Creek and are the last 1-6A team standing.