Basketball season in full swing

Three area schools are still in the state football playoffs, but the rest of the schools have moved into basketball season and tonight has big slate of area games for basketball fans to enjoy.

Monroe High School and Deerfield Windsor will not be competing on the hardcourt this week, but Westover, Dougherty County, Lee County, Terrell County and more will be going full steam into the new season. With the Tip-off tournament at Albany State last week and the Thanksgiving Shootout at Monroe, local basketball fans got a glimpse of the season to come. Now the schools are heading full force into the season.

The biggest matchup today will be in Leesburg when the Lee County Trojans (2-1) host the Westover Patriots (0-1). The two schools played in the tip-off tournament at ASU with the Trojans pulling out a 61- 52 victory. Javion Johnson and Jeremiah Engram led the way for the Trojans with 29 and 20 points, respectively. The Trojans also defeated Monroe 60-58 in the Thanksgiving Shootout but lost to Americus-Sumter 71-63 in Americus Saturday night.

The girls’ matchup for Lee County and Westover will also be a rematch. The Lady Patriots of Westover (1-0) have not played since they beat Lee County in the Tip-off tournament. Lee County (1-3) got a big win against Manchester 68-19 but had close losses to Jonesboro in the Thanksgiving Shootout 49-45 and Saturday night to Americus-Sumter 58-52.

The Dougherty County Trojans will travel to Americus for a matchup with the Panthers at Americus-Sumter Tuesday evening. The Trojans (2-1) are coming off of a big win over North Cobb Christian Saturday afternoon in the Thanksgiving Shootout. The Trojans suffered their only loss so far in a 73-69 shootout with Early County Friday evening. The Panthers will come into the game 2-0 with wins of Lee County and Lowndes County.

Tuesday afternoon Byne Christian School will be back in action after being off for nearly a two-week span. The Saints, 2-1, won their tipoff tournament earlier in November by beating Chess Academy of Tifton and Community Christian of Adel, but then lost to Chess a few days later. Tuesday afternoon the Saints will host Grace Christian Academy of Fayetteville.

The Sherwood Christian Academy Eagles (0-2) will travel to Valdosta to play Georgia Christian. The Eagles will then face Covenant Christian of Macon on Thursday before playing Georgia Christian again here in Albany at Sherwood.

The Terrell County Greenwave will open their season tonight at home by hosting Quitman County in Dawson and Calhoun County (1-0) will host Randolph-Clay in their first region game of the year.