DEANDRE STEWART DRIVES AROUND AN OPPONENT He's the top scorer for the W-W Tigers this year and will lead them in the post-season. The Washington-Wilkes Tigers won't know until tonight (February 12) who they will face in a region playoff game next week, and they will find out the exact date and the location at the same time. By virtue of their third place finish in Sub-region 4A-A, the Tigers will be facing the No. 2 team from Subregion 4B-A and that also has yet to be decided between Wilkinson County and Hancock Central.

The Wilkinson Warriors have been ranked at the top of Class A practically all season and are currently No. 1 in the state with a 20-3 overall record and a 5-1 region record. Their only losses have come at the hands of a Florida team, a Georgia AA powerhouse, and - yep - the Hancock Central Bulldogs.

Hancock Central is 17-7 overall and also 5-1 in the region. The Bulldogs are now standing at No. 7 in the state and their only region loss was to Wilkinson's Warriors. Their other six losses were at the hands of Whitefield Academy, a Class A Top Ten team; some AAA teams, and one AAAA team.

So either way, W-W is going to its hands full on the court when game time finally rolls around. But all the Tigers are healthy and despite their youth, they are loaded with talent. Both Hancock and Wilkinson are seasoned, senior-loaded teams with plenty of momentum. Still, the Tigers seem to have a knack for finding a way into the state playoffs. A win would do that for them again.

In their last game of the regular season, the Tigers put away arch rival Lincoln County in what started out looking like a tooth-and-nail battle. Deadlocked at 13-13 after the first quarter, Lincoln actually pulled ahead and took a seven-point (27-34) lead into the dressing room at halftime.

But the Tigers remembered that they had come back on the Red Devils from being down 16 points in the Christmas Tournament and they again turned the tables and ended up with a 73-68 victory.

It was Head Coach Don Keiser's 19th win over Lincoln County. He has never lost to the Red Devils.

Deandre Stewart led the scoring for W-W with 26 and got the team's only double-double with 10 assists. Neko Jones led the rebounding effort with eight and also had seven blocked shots while scoring three points.

Others contributing to the win were Quincey Bradley (15 points, 7 rebounds), Teverrius Jones (13, 7), Akiemos Coleman (12, 6), and Matson Keiser (6, and 6 assists).