Cairo's Philek Bryden gets ready to go up for a shot against Thomas County Central on Tuesday.

CAIRO — After a punishing 51-31 win over Thomas County Central on Tuesday night to avenge a Dec. 9 loss, Cairo’s boys basketball team is asking one question:

‘Who are we?’

Right now, the young Syrupmakers are a team with a winning record at 4-3, and they’ll be getting a better look at themselves going forward headed into a Baker County tournament next week. They have already improved over last season, when they won just two games.

Against Central, both teams kept things close and relatively low-scoring in the first half before Cairo burst ahead with a barrage of points. Senior Jahseari Patterson played a big role in a 20-7 stretch in the third quarter that secured the win, with 8 points.

“Basketball is a game of runs,” Cairo boys coach Isiah Chance said. “In the second half we made that big run and we got away from them a little bit. They had to chase us.”

The Syrupmakers were successful in spreading the ball around, not relying on just one player to get them to the win. Patterson finished with 10 points and fellow senior Travis Hunter wrapped up his night with 11. Philek Bryden also finished with 11. Now the challenge is being consistent.

“When you’re playing with a lot of sophomores and a couple of seniors, you’re going to have what I call a see-saw,” Chance said. “It’s going to be up and down. Right now we’re trying to take the season in thirds. We just finished the first third and now you want to build on that and find your identity before region play.

“That’s what we’re going to find out over the Holidays — who we really are.”

That’s fair undertaking, considering the past few games. Cairo has played two region contests so far, with wildly different results. Against Hardaway, the Syrupmakers escaped with a 60-54 overtime win, but then was blown out by Northside-Columbus in an 82-44 drubbing before playing the Yellow Jackets this week.

“We played all sad on Saturday and they beat us,” Chance said. “You’re always going to see how they’re going to respond to a loss. We bounced back. How you respond to a loss says a lot about your team. Now we’re going to get ready for the stretch of the season.”

After next week’s festivities in Baker County, Cairo will have a big chance to prove itself, with region matchups against Americus-Sumter, Columbus and Carver-Columbus in early January. In a new region, prepping for some of their new opponents will be tough, but Chance has his team focusing on what they can control.

“You don’t know that much about the Columbus schools,” Chance said. “You just try to get your team prepared for each situation.”