The Lions and Lady Lions of Lithia Springs hosted South Cobb in a pair of 5-AAAAA region match-ups on Saturday. The Lithia girls opened the day with a 52-46 victory over South Cobb. The LSHS boys won their game 75-57.

The Lady Lions took an early lead in their game behind solid 3-point shooting. However, in the second half, South Paulding cut the deficit to one.

“They came out in the zone and we hit some early shots,” said LSHS coach David Mills. “They went to man and were able to cut into the score in the second half.”

After South Paulding cut the deficit to one, Lithia hit a shot to make it a 3-point game. The two teams then battled back and forth for the rest of the half.

With short time on the clock, Tobreshia Horn and Joi Few managed to seal the Lithia victory from the free throw line.

In the boys game, the Lions trailed 12-10 after the first quarter but led 37-23 by the half. They went up 50-34 by the end of the third quarter.

“They came out in a zone in the first quarter and that caught me by surprise. All the coaches I talked to said they only play man-to-man,” said LSHS coach JW Cantrell. “We had a huge second quarter and the bench played really well tonight.”

Neil Phillips led Lithia with 19 points. Beau Carter added 17 and Tius Vick followed with 16. Tikal Petty and Tylen Walker played well on the defensive end of the floor.

The win over South Paulding sealed first place in the subregion for Lithia.

“This was a huge win for us and now we will get to play at home for a chance to go to the state tournament,” Cantrell said. “We just need one win to go to state.”

Lithia will be off until Friday when they travel to New Manchester for a pair of intra-county and region games. Girls play at 6 p.m. and boys follow at 7:30 p.m.