TIFTON — Basketball season came to an end in Tift County Thursday night. The Tift County Lady Devils, the last surviving high school team in state tournaments, lost to McEachern, 81-53, in the second round.

Playing at McEachern, the Lady Devils fell behind early, but kept competing. Their perseverance paid off with a second half run.

“We got it to within 11 points in the fourth (quarter),” said head coach Julie Conner. Then, she said, McEachern hit back-to-back three-pointers. That returned momentum to the home team and was enough to propel them to the elite eight. The Lady Indians will travel to Norcross next Tuesday or Wednesday for a shot at the semifinals.

“We just didn’t have the firepower,” Conner said.

Most of McEachern’s starting lineup will play basketball collegiately. Jasmine Carson, who Conner said “played incredible,” is going to Georgia Tech. They also had a big game from freshman Denim DeShields, whose father and brother (both named Delino) played Major League Baseball and whose sister Diamond, was a standout at Tennessee.

Joslyn Reyes hit a career high six three-pointers Thursday and had 19 points total. Conner was going to check to see if it was possibly a Tift County record. Nicky Jones added 18 points.

For Tift County, this was the first time they advanced to the second round of the state tournament since 2015. Conner said she was “super proud of our entire team” for the accomplishment.

Playing at McEachern was beneficial, she said, in seeing what the Lady Devils needed to do to get to the next level.