THOMASVILLE — Reports of Thomasville boys basketball’s downfall have been greatly exaggerated.

After beginning the season 0-4, the Bulldogs are beginning to settle in, rattling off three straight wins against Bainbridge, Thomas County Central and region foe Berrien. Now sitting at 3-4, Thomasville is looking to continue the growth of its young team.

“We’ve still got a lot of learning and maturation to do,” Thomasville boys basketball coach Ben Tillman said. “The main thing is to stay focused and stay the course. This team is very young and the more games they play, the more confident they’ll get.”

Despite the early struggles, Thomasville has been reluctant to change anything with the defensive rotation or offensive options. As a team that’s still learning, it’s been important to keep a sense of continuity.

“I don’t like to change things, especially with them being young kids,” he said.

“I like to make it as simple as possible. Once they learn it, then you can expand on it.”

And so far, that patience is paying off. Junior and Arkansas commit Reggie Perry has been a key part of Thomasville’s current run, leading his team with double-digit scoring to go along with the defensive prowess and size he brings. He and the other big men on the team have really begun to perform.

“Sam Teehee is giving us major minutes off the bench,” Tillman said. “Titus Wright is giving us good production in a starting role. So we’ve got three bigs that are really playing well right now. We just have to get the guards to step up with the bigs and I think we’ll be fine.”

One facet of the learning process is that of emotion — particularly, not letting it affect performance on the court. The biggest example of that lesson was on full display when the Bulldogs played against their crosstown rivals, the Yellow Jackets. Whether it was the atmosphere, or the magnified significance of the matchup, Thomasville let an underdog Central team hang around in the first half, and went into halftime only up one point, before taking command in the third quarter.

It’s an aspect of their game that the Bulldogs are still trying to combat. On Saturday, they host Pelham, a quality opponent, and they’ll be hoping to continue their recent hot streak going into the Hoopfest tournament after Christmas break.

“I think we’re still kind of emotional at times, but it hasn’t led us to lose the lead,” Tillman said. “We’re trying to get those things under control. We just need to continue to move forward. We have a big game coming up against Pelham, and that will be another emotional game. If we can get past that game going into Hoopfest, I’ll be real happy.”