While head coach Elizabeth Bennett may tell you her 2009-2010 Lady Wildcats success is being powered by "team" basketball, it is senior captain Tyler Carlson who has had a firm grip on the tiller.

Now with post season in sight Carlson is not only steering the ship, she has dropped an extra set of oars in the water. Sixty-nine Carlson points in one week and three wins closer to the region tournament, Richmond Hill now stands at 15-5 and 8-2 in region 3-AAA. The following details their most recent victims.

At South Effingham on Tuesday: a 59-23 win. Aside from Carlson’s 21 points, Aliyah Johnson added 14.

West Laurens at home on Friday: a 51-37 win, Carlson scored a season high 28 points. No one else scored in double figures, nor did they need to.

Saturday night’s trip to Burke County ended with a 57-39 win for the ladies and Carlson once again led with 20 while fellow senior captain Dajah Davis was close behind with 16 points and 9 rebounds - a career high in scoring for Davis.

"They were great games and great wins for us," said Bennett of her team’s fruitful week.

In spite of their success, the Lady Wildcats are currently in third place in the region and need to finish strong in order to meet Bennett’s goal of finishing at number two.

Richmond Hill will be at home on Friday for a rematch with Baldwin County, who the ‘Cats managed to beat narrowly earlier in the season. Next they will travel to Liberty County on Feb. 12 to hopefully avenge an earlier loss. State ranked Washington County at home the following night puts an exclamation point to the week’s challenge.

The Wildcat boys also had a successful week that started with a convincing 64-26 win at South Effingham. Vernon Jackson led all scores with 18 points and Lorenza Ross added 10 points. The domination turned out to be just what the ‘Cats needed to avenge an earlier region loss in Dublin.

West Laurens is one of the teams head coach William Altman had hoped to jump over in order to get a favorable seeding at the region tournament in Dublin. That revenge came with a 46-43 win on Friday when West Laurens visited the Wildcat Gym. Richmond Hill overcame poor free throw shooting and was led by Lorenza Ross with 19 points in the critical win.

On Saturday, the Wildcats traveled to Burke County to face what may be the best team in the rough and tumble 3-AAA. The Bears came out on top 66-42 in spite of Robbie Bynum’s 16 point performance for the Wildcats.

"It was a good win on Friday against West Laurens," Coach Altman said. "Foul trouble plagued us in the 2nd quarter against Burke and they outscored us 17 to 5 in the 2nd. Their size gave us match-up problems with the big 6 foot, 9 inch kid back in the lineup. Offensive rebounds really hurt us and we gave up a total of 18 in the game - many of which translated into layups or easy put-backs."

Right now, the RHHS boys (11-10. 3-6) are tied for the fourth, fifth and sixth spot in Region 3-AAA.

The next region game is Friday at home versus Baldwin, 6 p.m. start.