Cordele — Crisp County High basketball teams began Tuesday night successful defense of the region crowns they won a year ago and did so in contrasting fashion over league newcomer Albany High.

Whereas the Lady Cougars bolted to a big early lead en route to an ultimate 44-32 over the Squaws, the Cougars fought an uphill battle in rallying from as much as 10 down to defeat the Indians 53-45.

Both Crisp squads will be back in action on Friday when they travel to Worth County for another Region 1-AAAA match-up. Their Saturday home games vs. Dooly County have been postponed.

Lady Cougars 44, Squaws 32

The torrid first period start turned in by the Lady Cougars of first-year head coach Barrett Wilkes ultimately proved decisive.

Bagging the game’s first 11 points en route to a 17-1 lead after just eight minutes of play and then closing out the final quarter with a strong finish enabled Crisp to weather its frigid second and third cantos.

“We started off well by moving the ball and executing the things we had worked on in practice, but slowed down in the second period when they put a little pressure on us,” said Wilkes after being presented his first win as a head varsity coach.

“In the third quarter, we started tightening up and didn’t take care of the basketball as well as we should have. That could have been because we were a little tired and are still used to learning to play with each other again.

“While we did finish pretty good and all in all played pretty decently in a typical season opener, it was a game where I pretty much felt throughout we were in control without really being in control if that makes sense.”

Nasheema Oliver’s 12 points topped the balanced attack mounted by Crisp. The now 1-3 Albany team, which went the first 4:38 of the game without scoring and didn’t get its initial field goal until 6:25 before halftime, was paced by Brianna Williams’ 9 points.

Score by Quarters

Albany High 1-11-6-14 — 32

Crisp County 17-9-3-15 — 44

Scoring

Albany High (32) — Kairsha Jackson 6, Brianna Williams 9, Brianna Washington 5, LaDaisha Green 6, Dejank McClendon 2, Elisa Hollinger 4.

Team totals: field goals 11; free throws 8 of 16 (50%); fouls 11; 3-pointers — Jackson 1, Williams 1; fouled out — none.

Crisp County (44) — Nisha Waters 7, Dee Dee Williams 9, Deletria Colson 7, Kayla Green 9, Nasheema Oliver 12, Alexis Felton, Niqueria Jones, Miah Burks.

Team totals: field goals 17; free throws 7 of 14 (50%); fouls 16; 3-pointers — Colson 1, Green 2; fouled out — none.

Cougars 53, Indians 45

Seemingly on their way to a debut loss when they trailed 12-7 after a  quarter and fell behind 23-13 in the final two minutes of the first half, the Cougars gradually battled their way back into contention.

Sparked by Javoris Cooks’ 13-point third period production, Crisp closed to within 35-31 by that stanza’s end and finally took its first lead of the night at 38-37 on Kerrion Harris’ basket 5:54 from the finish.

The Indians momentarily regained the lead at 41-40 with 3:59 to go before the Cougars went on top to stay at 42-41 on Davion Harvey’s two free throws with 3:39 remaining.  Prime Hamilton’s field goal made it 44-41 before Crisp hit 9 of 16 free throws in the final 1:50 to win going away.

“I was proud of our comeback during which we fed off Javoris’ second-half performance,” Cougar coach Terry Smith said after watching Cooks can 22 of his game-high 24 points after intermission.

“In that first half, we were tight and pressing while trying to go too fast. You have to give Albany some credit, too, for putting us behind as they did a good job of making their shots in the first two quarters. They also hurt us on the boards.

“Overall, the positives were that our zone and man defense was pretty good as was our offensive execution with the exception of the fact we just missed the basket too many times after getting the shots we wanted to take.

“The negatives were that we got beat on the boards pretty good and that we didn’t shoot very well from the three throw line (where they made just half of their 24 attempts).”

In handing the Indians their second region loss in as many starts, the Cougars got double-digit scoring not only from Cooks but also from Harvey with 14.

Score by Quarters

Albany High 12-11-12-10 — 45

Crisp County 7-8-16-22 — 53

Scoring

   Albany High (45) — Malik Dungee-Ali 3, Jamarcus Nunally 9, Javier Coley 2, Desmond Newberry 11, Emanuel Byrd 3, Joshua Anderson 2, Tyler Cheese 2, Jordan Young 7, Juwan Young 3, Sean Wooden 3.

   Team totals: field goals 18; free throws 4 of 17 (23.5%); fouls 18; 3-pointers — Nunally 3, Newberry 2; fouled out — none.

   Crisp County (53) — Kerrion Harris 3, Javoris Cooks 24, Davion Harvey 14, Taylor Walls, Eddie Morgan 2, C.J. McGriff, A.J. Mobley, Prime Hamilton 6, Rashad Buckholts 2, Montel Richard, Shaquille West 2, Landon Whitman.

   Team totals: field goals 18; free throws 12 of 24 (50%); fouls 16; 3-pointers — Cooks 4, Harvey 1; fouled out — West.