ATLANTA, GA - Tift County and Wilkinson County basketball programs are a lot alike. Both programs have a long legacy of top talent. Both schools will play anyone, any time. Both schools like a good hard fought battle. The fan bases from both schools roll deep wherever the game.

So why not lock horns early in the season and on a stage like Philips Arena in downtown Atlanta?

The result was a fast-paced and a bit frantic 72-63 win for Tift County over Wilkinson County in the South Georgia Showdown.

Wilkinson County made two significant runs to cut the gaping Tift County lead to nine points. Both times Georgia Tech bound senior Tadric Jackson had to be reinserted into the Tift County line-up to help the Blue Devils maintain the lead.

"That was the main reasons why they came back. I subbed guys in that don't normally get into the game to see how they would respond and I wanted them to get into the game and experience Philips Arena. And maybe that was a little too early on my part," Tift County head coach Eric Holland said.

"Maybe I shouldn't have done that when we only had 25 points on the board. We may have lost a little it of momentum from that. At the same time, we tell our kids about maintaining adversity all of the time. When the game got close, I thought we did a good job of running our offense with good movement, good spacing and good passing."

Indeed they did. Jackson scored 18 of his game high 28 points in the second half and helped spur his team to a quick run and eventually put away a scrappy Wilkinson County team.

Tift County freshman Preston Horne was outstanding once again for Tift County. He played well in Florida and shined against Montverde Academy, a team that many believe to be the top high school program in America this season. Horne finished with 18 points and eight rebounds.

"The biggest thing was giving these kids an experience to play in a professional arena like this against an opponent like that. We knew our guys were going to compete," Holland said.

Ladarius Stewart added 11 points in the win for Tift County.

Wilkinson County's senior guard Rico Simmons finished with 26 points while Derrick Traywick and Talio Jones each scored 14 for Wilkinson County.

Simmons was great en route to right side of the rim throughout the entire game. As always, Wilkinson County should be a major contender in Class A this season in the Peach State.

Tift County will travel to Buford next week to play the Wolves on Dec. 7 and have a match-up against Savannah in a month.