Malachi Evans loads up on a jump pass in the 1st half for Tift versus Houston County.

TIFTON — They did it again. Tift County’s Lady Devils eclipsed 80 points for the second straight time Friday night, stampeding past Houston County, 82-18.

Added together, the Lady Devils’ last two games have been cartoon levels of domination: 169-33. Tuesday, they set a school record for biggest margin of victory, 71 points over Cook. This is now three straight opponents held to 18 points or less for Tift No. 7 in Score Atlanta Class 6A basketball poll and No. 4 in MaxPreps’, with a 15-3 overall record.

The second part of Friday’s hoops doubleheader saw Houston’s Bears pull out of a halftime tie to defeat the Blue Devils, 57-45.

Friday’s score could have been worse for Houston. Four minutes into the opening stanza, Tift was only up 5-3, Ninety seconds later, the Lady Bears were still in it, 7-5 after Madison Shinholster worked the post.

But then head coach Julie Conner-Johnson’s Lady Devils exploded. The last 2:12 of the quarter saw Tift score 12, eight by Jimmya Cushion, for a 19-5 lead.

Any hopes for Houston of making it respectable went out the door quickly in the 2nd period. Tift outscored them 28-3, the Lady Bears’ lone field goal at 3:07.

Point guard Makayla Bryant put on her own showtime in the 2nd, first dazzling with a scoop layup. The next trip down the floor saw Bryant come from out of nowhere to score on an offensive rebound. Bryant’s biggest cheers when she skipped a pass by two defenders from nearly halfcourt to Faith Hillmon in the paint for a wide open layup.

Seven more for Cushion meant she had 17 at halftime, more than double that of Houston. Mariyah Batts closed out scoring for the 1st half with a three, putting the well into mercy rule territory at 47-8.

The Lady Bears scored 10 in the 3rd, four from Mady Jones. It was not enough to keep up with Tift, who racked up assist after assist. Cushion went behind the back, Pete Maravich style to spot Bryant for an easy two under the basket.

Makala Horne had two buckets as starters and bench mingled freely. Jalaya Miller made it a 50-point margin, 68-18, with 34 seconds left in the frame.

The 4th quarter was a super-duper mercy rule, the clock only stopping for free throws and substitutions. The Lady Devils put up 14 markets to none for the visitors. Batts ended the 2nd half, like the 1st, with a long three-ball.

Cushion scored 25 points, with Caitlyn Burgess at 16 and Miller with 15. Miller was 5-for-5 at the free throw line, extending her streak to 21 in a row.

Shinholster scored 7 of Houston’s 18, with Jayla Holdsen contributing 5.

BEARS 57, DEVILS 45

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Derek Henderson and Malachi Jackson broke a 27-27 tie the 3rd quarter. Corey Howard’s put-back cut that lead to four points, but Malik Gillespie was fouled on a 3-pointer attempt and made all three from the line to go ahead 36-29.

Tift got jumpers from Jaden Nelson and Kaden Lawson but Coby Salter ended the 3rd with a triple and Gillespie opened the 4th with one. Now trailing 45-33, the Blue Devils could only get as close as eight points (47-39) on a three by J.J. Lamar at 2:43.

Houston was electric from the free throw line in the last 2:07, making 8-of-9, negating Malachi Evans’ one-man show for the Devils in the same span. Evans lofted and made three tough runners.

Typically for Tift games, it took time for either team to get much going. Halfway through the 1st quarter, the Devils trailed 4-2. Tift then found some momentum on a Lawson jump shot. Evans had a scoring spree of his own — seven straight points — and the locals went on 15-5 run to go ahead 17-9 at 5:40 in the 2nd.

Houston’s outside shooting and free throw abilities came to the rescue, pulling to 22-18 with two minutes showing on the clock. The Bears scored seven in the final 45 seconds after Nelson made a triple. It was 25-25 at halftime.

Gillespie scored 15 to lead the Bears with Jackson at 13. Tift’s leaders were Evans with 13 points, Lamar with 8 and Corey Howard with 7.

Tift will host Westover in non-region games Tuesday, then get back into 1-6A competition with Thomas County Central coming in Jan. 26.