Thomasville's Vonterius Woolbright gets ready to go up for a shot against Potters House Christian in the Holiday Hoopfest championship game Wednesday.

THOMASVILLE — Holiday Hoopfest ended on Wednesday night, and Thomasville basketball finished with a collective sour taste in its mouth.

The event’s hosts both fell in the final day of competition, beginning with the girls suffering a rough third quarter for a 52-29 loss to East Gadsden. In the tournament’s championship game, Thomasville’s boys could not recover from a slow start, and Potters House Christian Academy came away with a 73-62 win.

The girls began their game in a hole immediately, with the Jaguars surging to a 10-3 lead after the first. The Bulldogs found some life in the second, with Zoey Jackson connecting on a few scores to help close the gap to 14-11. East Gadsden hit a 3 and began to pull away with a 7-0 run, but the game was still in the Bulldogs’ reach with a 21-11 halftime score.

That changed early in the second half.

The Bulldogs had trouble shooting and with ball handling, and the Jaguars took full advantage in the third, outscoring Thomasville 19-6 in the quarter, essentially putting the game out of reach as the Jaguars cruised to the victory from that point.

Osjha Dent led her team with 10 points, with Jackson contributing 7. The girls finished with a 2-1 record in Hoopfest play.

In the tournament’s boys title game, Thomasville was caught of guard early. PHCA connected on four straight 3s out of the opening tip, eventually leading to a 18-5 hole that the Bulldogs would fight to climb out of for the duration of the contest. 

Briefly, it looked like Thomasville was on the verge of answering with Jordan Powell and Quindarius Thomas sinking 3s in the second to get their team within 6 points of tying it up at 28-22. However, Potters House kept getting its shots in, and Thomasville trailed 37-26 at the half.

Thomasville was never able to get past a 10 point difference in the second half en route to its only loss of the tournament. 

Reggie Perry finished with 24 points on the night, with Thomas and Powell adding nine.

Despite the defeat, Bulldogs coach Ben Tillman was pleased with how his team performed after the game’s opening minutes. 

“I think we did a real good job,” he said. “We weren’t really ready to compete at the beginning of the game. We did well after we settled down. They had such a big lead that we just weren’t able to overcome it.”