TIFTON — One weekend win is in the books for the Tift County Blue Devils. Now, they’ll be looking for another to earn the No. 1 seed and host the Region 1-6A tournament.

The Blue Devils avenged an earlier-season loss to Camden County Friday night, 49-29. They’ll play Valdosta Saturday. The winner will be the No. 1 seed.

Unfortunately, it looks like the Lady Devils will have a tougher path. They fell to Camden, 50-40, and will have to defeat Colquitt County in a play-in game to reach the state tournament. Even if Tift wins over Valdosta Saturday, they will have the same region record as the Lady Packers and Colquitt is ahead in the tiebreaker.

Friday’s boys game saw Camden try to employ the same tactics that won for them in Kingsland. This time, it didn’t work.

Head coach Tommy Blackshear said to combat Camden’s pedestrian pace, he switched the Blue Devils’ defense early on to a zone.

Behind a pair of three-pointers by Jayden Ayala and Mason Aikens, the Wildcats went up early 6-2. At 3:39 in the first, J.J. Lamar hit a trey to pull to 6-5. One minute later, Cordell Nelson sank a jumper off an inbounds pass. That gave the Blue Devils a 7-6 lead and they never gave it back.

After rehabbing a knee injury for nearly all of the regular season, Jaden Nelson, has been working his way back in the lineup. His jumper in the last minute put Tift up 10-6. They had a 10-7 lead at quarter’s end.

The Wildcats narrowed the gap to 10-9 early in the second, but Qua Wilson and Marshall Howard put some distance on that with baskets. Caleb Reed got it back down to two at 16-14, but the Blue Devils finished the quarter on a 6-0 run.

The third quarter was the backbreaker for the ‘Cats. They mustered four points and a single field goal while Tift nearly doubled them up in the eight minutes.

Kaden Lawson’s offensive rebound at 3:23 got the advantage over 10 points at 28-17. Lamar and Cordell Nelson added points. In the closing seconds, Camden had a chance at momentum heading into the fourth but an inbounds pass sailed high and Jaden Nelson not only won the footrace to retrieve it, he kissed a layup off the glass at the horn sounded, putting the game out of reach at 34-18.

Two triples by Camden gave them a rare second-half highlight, but the latter was the closest they’d be at 38-25. Howard and Dai’jon Hayes finished up the scoring with three buckets in the night’s last minute.

Tift spread its 49 points between nine players. Cordell Nelson scored 11 and Lamar netted 10. Continuing to make the most of his extended playing time, Howard scored 9.

Ayala’s 9 was most for the Wildcats.

CAMDEN 50, LADY DEVILS 40

The Lady Devils trailed nearly all game. Down five at the end of the first quarter, Camden barely extended that to 28-22 at halftime, though the Lady Wildcats had been up by as much as 11 points in the half.

Tift made a game of it.

A free throw by Jaziyah Johnson to open the third quarter sparked a run. Amiya Jordan hit twice and when Johnson’s jumper at 6:17 went through the net, the Lady Devils were down 30-29.

Jalaya Miller stuffed Camden on the other end, and with the locals doing hard work on the offensive glass, Johnson put a board back in at 4:27. For the first time all game, the Lady Devils had a lead at 31-30.

Unfortunately, they could not keep it.

Tytionna Scott posted up at the other end. Mahliya Reeder, who came through every time Camden needed her, had three baskets in the last 3:30 of the third. Miller tried to help Tift keep pace, but they were down 41-33 going into the fourth.

Jakyla Jackson’s three built Camden’s lead back up to nine at the beginning of the fourth. Miller and Jordan had free throws, but the Lady Devils didn’t have a field goal in the frame until a flip by Mariyah Batts at 1:43.

Mackenzie Holliday began the night with a block, but the Lady Wildcats were doing all the early scoring. Jordan and Miller provided six points to close to 8-6. Momentum was completely Camden’s at quarter’s end, however, when Reeder beat the buzzer with a halfcourt shot.

Reeder put the visitors ahead 11 late in the second, but Miller and Holliday led a 7-2 streak that got them in striking distance at halftime.

Miller scored 18 to lead Tift, with Jordan at 9 points. Seventeen by Scott and 13 by Reeder paced Camden.