THOMASVILLE – The red-hot Thomasville Bulldogs have been in this position before; Region 1-AA champs, No. 1 seed and a favorite to contend for the state championship.

For the Bulldogs (22-4) to fulfill their ultimate goal of winning a state title for the first time since 2018, they will need to take each game one game at a time. It starts in the first round on Wednesday when they host Jasper County.

“That’s what it’s all about, taking it one game at a time, understanding that you could be beaten at any given time. It’s not any rankings or anything like that,” Thomasville coach Ben Tillman said. “You’re 0-0. It’s a whole new season. We’re just going to continue to move forward and try to be the best that we can be (Wednesday night).”

Thomasville has been its best version most of the season. Only four times in 26 games have the Bulldogs tasted defeat this year; twice were to Class 7A Lowndes (55-54 and 49-47). The Bulldogs enter the state tournament having won nine straight, including a 62-39 win over Cook in the region tournament semifinals last Thursday and 61-49 over Early County in the region championship last Friday night.

“I think we have a lot of talented kids, kids that have been working hard and putting in the time. It’s good to see some of that hard work pay off,” Tillman said. “But we want to continue to focus on being a blue-collar team. Come out every day and put our hard hat on and do the things that we normally do and play the very best that we can each and every time we get an opportunity to do tha. We talked a little bit about appreciating the process and enjoying the process as well as understanding we still have goals to meet.”

If Thomasville wins, it will play either Temple or Model in the second round.