By By BRUCE HIXON Sports Editor
Probably sooner or later the T.R. Miller Lady Tigers will need a third scorer to take the pressure off senior Ashley Samuel and sophomore Joy McCorvey.
Then again as long as the current one-two punch works, why mess with success.
Samuel and McCorvey accounted for all but three of T.R. Miller's points in Thursday's 62-28 triumph over the Escambia County Lady Blue Devils in Thursday's opening round of the Escambia County Tournament held at W.S. Neal High School.
Samuel was consistently deadly with 40 points, 19 in the first half and 21 more in the second half. Meanwhile McCorvey threw in 19 more of her own.
"Ashley wasn't too far off our school record for a game of 47 points (which fell Friday), so she obviously had a good game," T.R. Miller coach Ron Jackson said.
One never would have guessed after Thursday's first quarter that T.R. Miller had wiped out Escambia County 84-36 in the season opener back on November 25.
The Lady Tigers were just four-for-11 from the field, committed five turnovers and found themselves on the wrong end of a 10-9 score.
"It was probably a hard game for our players to get fired up to play after we had beaten them the way we did. Then again, you have to be ready to play against all opponents," Jackson said.
T.R Miller, which had a 41-0 run against the Lady Blue Devils in the first encounter, began the second quarter with a 25-0 blitz that put them firmly in control with a 34-10 lead. Samuel had 13 of those points, while McCorvey had 10.
Equally effective was the T.R. Miller defense, which forced Escambia County into 12 second quarter turnovers. The Lady Blue Devils also went through an eight-minute stretch without a point and a 10-minute stretch without a field goal.
By the time the third quarter was less than three minutes old T.R. Miller's sluggish start was a distant memory, as two free throws by McCorvey made it a 30-point lead of 42-12.
The Lady Tigers obtained their biggest lead of the game when an offensive rebound bucket by Samuel made it 57-18 late in the third quarter.
At W.S. Neal
T.R. Miller 9 25 23 5 – 62
Escambia Co. 10 2 8 8 – 28
T.R. MILLER (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Samuel 14-2-6-40; McCorvey 7-0-5-19; Lane 1-0-1-3 (Totals: 22-2-12-62)
ESCAMBIA COUNTY (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Lett 2-0-2-6; Sanders 2-0-2-6; Burt 1-0-4-6; Adams 2-0-0-4; Lee 1-0-0-2; Taylor 0-0-2-2; McCall 1-0-0-2 (Totals: 9-0-10-28)