TIFTON — For those who have been missing Tift County varsity basketball, it returns this week. Games are still two weeks away from being at home, but teams will be in action. Tift goes to Cook Friday, Dec. 1 and to Valdosta on Saturday, Dec. 2.
The first home games of the year will be Dec. 15 and Dec. 16, against Sumter County and Valdosta, respectively. In between are road games at Coffee on Dec. 8 and at Westover on Dec. 12.
Lady Devils head coach Julie Conner-Johnson has been thrilled in practices. “How well we’re playing as a team,” she said. Tift County is bursting with talent and practices have been ultra competitive. They love it that way, she said, asking for lineups to be mixed and matched in their intrasquad scrimmages.
They are a close team. So close that the early rallying cry has been T.O.S. — Team of Sisters.
So far, they’ve only had the chance to put that only display against another school. Boys and girls scrimmage Lowndes in November. The game was split in two varsity, junior varsity and ninth grade segments. The Lady Devils won all three.
“We were on cloud nine after the scrimmage with Lowndes,” said Conner-Johnson, adding she saw an additional toughness with the team in the warm-up. “I think the girls have tasted that we could be very good this year and now they’re just hungry.”
The Lady Devils were a Sweet 16 team in 2022-23, eliminated by a loaded Marist.
“Our practices have been so fun,” she said, “and so competitive.”
Tift opponents won’t like this next part: Two of their three top scorers not only return from 2022-23, both are juniors. Jimmya Cushion scored 407 for an average of 15 points per game and Jalaya Miller, No. 3 in scoring, averaged eight points per game. Cushion is already halfway to 1,000 career points and, if Miller keeps up her progress, she will challenge for that number as well.
After a year at another school, Caitlyn Burgess is back in a Lady Devils uniform for her senior season. Combined with her year away, Burgess has more than 600 career points.
“She played great in the scrimmage,” Conner-Johnson said.
Even with all these options, it will be hard for the Tift leader to pick a starting lineup. Faith Hillmon and Makala Horne have size (plus Hillmon’s starting experience) and Makayla Bryant is a steady point guard who played lots of minutes a year ago.
“We’ll have to be rotating,” she said. If Horne is coming off the bench, Conner-Johnson admits her starters would be smaller, “but very athletic.” Horne lives up to her family reputation, Conner-Johnson said. “Hard, hard, hard worker,” who knows everything going on on the floor.
That doesn’t include all the talent on the bench.
Jalaiah Rainey is a senior. Others are younger. Jaziyah Johnson and Amiya Jordan are sophomores and the Lady Devils have up-and-coming freshmen in Mariyah Batts and Mackenzie Holliday. Batts projects as a point guard.
While the Tift County Lady Devils are overflowing with high-scoring returnees, Blue Devils’ leader Tommy Blackshear has the challenge of replacing most of his lineup from 2022-23.
“We’re going to be a little inexperienced,” said Blackshear.
The top five scoring options are gone from last season, and seven of their top eight. That leaves McKyler Horne as the leading points man available.
However inexperience, this group “are going to have to at some point going to have to start playing like seniors,” he said. Horne is one of these, with Tristan Boone, Malachi Evans, TeShawn Bryant, Tio Cleveland and Fred White as the others. Blackshear sees the lineup developing throughout the year
Evans and White will be sharing point guard duties.
Boone and Jaden Nelson were banged up during football season. Blackshear believes Boone will be a big help to the lineup with his athleticism and anticipation. Nelson is solid defensively. Not that Tift needed any more bad news on that front, but Horne is also recovering from injury.
Corey Howard has some experience with the varsity and had two good games during the McDonald’s Invitational. He and Kaden Lawson bring height to the lineup. Blackshear said Lawson is now taller than Howard. “He’s a lot taller than Cory now,” he said, estimating Lawson’s height as a bit over 6-foot-6, with a lot of reach.
A newcomer to his lineup is J.J. Lamar, who played at Worth County last year. “He’s a 6-foot-3 athlete,” Blackshear said. “We hope he’ll be able to help us score.” Lamar led the Rams in scoring while there.
Blackshear will be patient in this first few weeks.
“We’ll have to wait, let them develop a bit,” he said. “If we keep improving, maybe we’ll be ready to go around Christmas or the first of January.”