By By BRUCE HIXON Sports Editor
Winning is nice. So is winning by a large margin.
Yet is winning in that fashion always healthy?
That remains to be seen for the T.R. Miller Lady Tigers, who wiped out another opponent Friday when they dismantled the visiting Monroe County Lady Tigers 58-22.
It was the fifth straight win for T.R. Miller, which improved to 7-1 on the season. The Lady Tigers have won those seven contests by an average of 34 points a game.
Many of those games could have been won by even wider margins, but T.R. Miller coach Ron Jackson either backed off with his team's press, reduced the minutes for his starting unit or both.
"That scares me. Our starters need more work than what they are getting," Jackson said. "At the same time I think we're doing a pretty good job of making teams play at our level instead of us playing at the level of our opponents."
As has usually been the case this season, the Lady Tigers used a one-two offensive punch to beat Monroe County (2-9).
There was something different about this one-two combination. Instead of the usual tandem of Ashley Samuel and Joy McCorvey, it was Samuel with 24 points and Keonshaye Lane with 19 that led the way.
"It was nice to see Keonshaye step up the way she did. We need that, but we also need it on a consistent basis," Jackson said.
T.R. Miller did not shoot a great percentage from the field at 37 percent (23-for-62), but it more than offset that with a 34-16 edge on the boards. That included a 22-4 advantage in offensive rebounds.
"We did a nice job hitting the boards. Joy had 14 rebounds and Ashley had 12," Jackson said.
If T.R. Miller's 13-0 run to start the game did not seal its win, its 20-0 run to end the first half did.
Samuel was a big part of the initial surge with a steal for a layup, a three-pointer and two free throws, while McCorvey converted two offensive rebounds into field goals.
It took Monroe County nearly six minutes at the start of the game to crack the scoreboard on a field goal by Ebony Johnson.
Samuel helped T.R. Miller close out the first quarter on a strong note with seven more points over the final two minutes. She also had a steal that led to a layup for Lane just before the first quarter ended that bumped the lead for the host Lady Tigers up to 22-4.
T.R. Miller pitched a 16-0 shutout in the second quarter. Samuel added a field goal and five free throws to finish the first half with 21 points.
Lane ended the first half scoring with a fastbreak bucket and a three-pointer that gave T.R. Miller a 38-4 lead at the midway point.
Monroe County snapped the Lady Tigers' 20-0 run with back-to-back field goals to start the third quarter, but T.R. Miller was able to maintain its sizeable advantage through buckets by Lane, Samuel, Megan Fountain and Cecile Nettles. Nettles' hoop late in the third quarter matched T.R. Miller's biggest lead up to that point at 49-14.
The biggest gap came halfway through the fourth quarter when a basket by Lane made it a 40-point lead of 56-16.
At T.R. Miller
Monroe County 4 0 12 6 – 22
T.R. Miller 22 16 11 9 – 58
MONROE COUNTY (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) M. Williams 3-1-0-9; Parker 2-1-0-7; W. Williams 1-0-0-2; Johnson 1-0-0-2; Farr 1-0-0-2 (Totals: 8-2-0-22)
See LADY TIGERS Page 7
T.R. MILLER (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Samuel 5-2-8-24; Lane 8-1-0-19; McCorvey 3-0-1-7; Nettles 1-0-0-2; Fountain 1-0-0-2; Smith 1-0-0-2; Sanford 1-0-0-2 (Totals: 20-3-9-58)