Cordele — For Crisp County High’s boys, a region title repeat and a second straight state playoff appearance remains a possibility. For its girls, those same goals are no longer attainable.

That was the scenario developing from Tuesday night’s Region 1-AAAA tournament quarterfinals played here where the Cougars spanked Worth 61-38 after the Lady Cougars lost 43-39 to Cairo in overtime.

The Crisp boys and Cairo girls thus join Americus-Sumter’s Lady Panthers, a 60-38 winner over Westover, and Albany’s Indians, a 59-44 victor over Dougherty, in advancing to today’s semifinals at Monroe of Albany.

The schedule there pairs the Cairo and Dougherty girls at 4, the third-seeded Cougars and second-seeded Westover Patriots at 5:30, the Americus-Sumter and Monroe girls at 7 and the Albany and Monroe boys at 8:30.

Today’s losers play in Friday’s consolation games at 4 (girls) and 5:30 while the winners vie at 7 (girls) and 8:30 to determine their seeding for the upcoming first round of state play.

Cougars 61, Rams 38

With their two regular season meetings having ended in a split by single-digit margins, there was no advance reason to think the third meeting would turn into the runaway it did.

But once the now 10-14 Cougars scored the first seven points of the game, they never trailed, never allowed the Rams, who finish 13-14, to get closer than two points (7-5) and twice led by as much as 25 points.

“Getting off to a good start as we did was big,” grinning coach Terry Smith said afterwards. “We knew they had played a nail-biter last night (while nipping Americus-Sumter 51-49 in a first-round game) and that with their legs thus being a little tired we wanted to jump on them early.”

The outcome did remain somewhat in doubt through the first two periods that ended with Crisp out front 13-10 after a quarter and 27-19 at intermission.

When the Cougars won the third period 17-6 to go up by 19 at 44-25 entering the final turn, it was basically all over. The home team’s 17-13 edge in the final stanza confirmed it.

“Our defense was the key, that’s what did it,” “Smith said. “The first time we played them (in a 54-47 road loss) we went with a lot of man-for-man. The second time (a 56-50 win at home) and again tonight we ran a diamond press until dropping into a 1-2-2 zone once they passed mid-court.

“I don’t know how many turnovers we forced or how many steals we wound up with, but our defense did a super job of locking them down. Offensively, though, we left too many points out there as the result of too many empty possessions.”

Crisp, which canned an unusually high seven 3-pointers, was led in scoring by Javoris Cooks who got 12 of his game-high 16 points on treys.

Taylor Walls collected half of his 12 points via a couple of 3-pointers. Shaquille West contributed seven blocks, seven points and a yeoman job on the boards.

No Ram reached double digits as Kendarrius Collier was high man with nine points.

Score by Quarters

Worth County 10-9-6-13 — 38

Crisp County 13-14-17-17 — 61

Scoring

Worth County (38) — Nick Burley 5, Lavonte Robinson 4, Timothy Gaint 7, Kendarrius Collier 9, Dontae Cooper 2, Justin Green 4, Brandon Moore 3, Ottis Jackson 4.

Team totals: field goals 12; free throws 11 of 19 (57.9%); fouls 13; 3-pointers — Robinson 1, Gaint 1, Collier 1; fouled out — none.

Crisp County (61) — Kerrion Harris 5, Javoris Cooks 16, Davion Harvey 5, Taylor Walls 12, Montre Hartage 4, Primetime Hamilton 2, Rashad Buckholts, Montel Richard, Shaquille West 7, Landon Whitman 6, Condell Woodson 2, Eddie Morgan 2, C.J. McGriff, Clement Burnam, Breon King.

Team totals: field goals 24; free throws 6 of 14 (42.9%); fouls 16; 3-pointers — Cooks 4, Walls 2, Harvey 1; fouled out — none.

Syrupmaids 43, Lady Cougars 39

With each of their regular season collisions have been decided by four points (Crisp won both by 47-43 and 46-42 scores), it seemed only fitting that the third meeting be decided by that spread. Unfortunately for the Lady Cougars,  though, this time it was the Syrupmaids who came out on top.

Crisp, in fact, seldom led as after taking a 10-9 lead at the end of the first period it found itself trailing 20-13 at halftime and 31-27 entering the backstretch. It drew even at 31 and again at 35 before taking its final lead of the night at 37-35 on a Kayla Green basket with 2:13 to go.

In the remaining time, the Lady Cougars committed five costly turnovers one of which allowed Cairo to knot the game at 37 and another came when they had the ball underneath their own basket with 7.6 seconds left in regulation play.

The Syrupmaids first missed a chance to pull out a win when Daneesha Edwards missed two free throws with 0.2 on the clock thus forcing an extra four-minute session during which their 6-2 points edge made them victorious.

“It’s pretty simple,” coach Barrett Wilkes said in reflecting upon reasons why his team went down in defeat. “We didn’t take care of the basketball; we didn’t hit a lot of easy shots both in the fourth quarter and overtime, and we also missed 11 free throws (in 20 attempts).

“When you don’t execute in key situations, which we had been doing of late but got away from doing tonight, it gets you beat. The opportunities for a win were there but we didn’t take advantage of them and I hate that for our girls sake as they really played hard.

“You have to give Cairo credit for coming ready to play, too, as we didn’t have an answer for the high pressure they put on us out front whenever we had the ball.”

As for the overall season that ended with the Lady Cougars going just 2-5 after star player Nasheema Oliver quit the team following an on-court incident between her and the coach, Wilkes said it offered “a lot of ups and downs.

“It was productive in that we won more times (12) than we lost (10) and that we got better toward the end when we were involved in several close games. Any time you lose one this, it hurts but then again we can only blame ourselves.”

With her 13 points, Green emerged as the only Crisp player to reach double digits. Cairo had two to achieve that feat as Edwards and Alicia Hampton sank 14 points each.

Score by Quarters

Cairo High 9-11-11-6-6 — 43

Crisp County 10-3-14-2 — 39

Scoring

Cairo High (43) — Daneesha Edwards 14, Arianna Pate 2, Olivia Hampton 14, Hillary Greene 7, Alandra Stewart 4, Shay Boles 2.

Team totals: field goals 14; free throws 14 of 22 (63.6%); fouls 16; 3-pointers — Hampton 1; fouled out — Stewart.

Crisp County (39) — Quenisha Waters 9, Dee Dee Williams 7, Deletria Colson 8, Kayla Green 13, Alexis Felton 2, Niqueria Jones, Mia Burks, Alexis Fenn, Daja Chambliss.

Team totals: field goals 14; free throws 9 of 20 (45%); fouls 21; 3-pointers — Colson 1, Green 1; fouled out — Green.