By By BRUCE HIXON Sports Editor
It may be the Christmas season, but the scary performance the T.R. Miller Lady Tigers turned in Tuesday made it feel more like Halloween.
What was so scary was how easily T.R. Miller disposed of the visiting Pensacola (Fla.) Lady Tigers in a 65-49 triumph.
As lopsided as the final score was, the game was not even that close. T.R. Miller (11-0) scored the game's first 11 points, led by 21 at halftime and by as many as 27 in the game.
It was a far cry from the first encounter between the teams where T.R. Miller squeaked out a 46-45 victory at the Fort Walton Beach (Fla.) Tournament.
Pensacola also owns the distinction of being the last team to beat the Lady Tigers in a regular season game. Tuesday's victory was T.R. Miller's 24th straight in regular season play since it lost to Pensacola 44-42 last January.
"This was a tremendous way for us to go into the Christmas break. We really played well. I didn't expect us to beat Pensacola the way we did. They've got a very good team and I expected a tough game similar to the one we had with them at Fort Walton Beach," Jackson said. "We really got after them hard on defense and we were very aggressive on offense."
More than five minutes passed before Pensacola (4-4) got on the scoreboard. By that time the visiting Lady Tigers cracked the scoring column, they were in an 11-0 hole thanks to a three-point play and steal for a layup by Jasmine Sanford, two hoops by Joy McCorvey and another basket by Krystle Smith.
T.R. Miller extened that lead to a first quarter high of 16-2 when Keonshaye Lane drained a three-pointer six minutes into the game.
The closest Pensacola came the rest of the way came in the first minute of the second quarter when Genieve Davis' baseline jumper trimmed the Lady Tigers' lead to 20-9.
For all intent, T.R. Miller applied its knockout blow over the next six minutes with a 15-4 run. That surge, which was capped off by Smith's baseline jumper, swelled T.R. Miller's lead to 35-13.
That lead, which stood at 37-16 at halftime, never dropped below 20 points until late in the fourth quarter.
Three-pointers by Peterson and Lane in the third quarter helped the lead continue to grow all the way up to 57-32.
Its biggest gap came two minutes into the fourth quarter when a fastbreak layup by Lane took the lead up to 61-34. A bucket by Sanford moments later matched that bulge at 63-36.
The real domimant force in T.R. Miller's game was McCorvey. The 6-0 junior center collected a double-double with 20 points and 17 rebounds.
In its only scheduled junior varsity game of the season, T.R. Miller downed Pensacola 28-10.
Two Lady Tigers, Donya Grice and Brittany Watson, outscored Pensacola by themselves. Grice led all scorers with 13 points, while Watson chipped in 11.
T.R. Miller begins defense of its 2003 Pensacola Catholic Tournament championship Monday when it faces Milton (Fla.) in the opening round at 2:30 p.m.
At T.R. Miller
Pensacola 7 9 18 15 – 49
T.R. Miller 20 17 20 8 – 65
PENSACOLA (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Davis 5-3-2-21; Gates 3-0-2-8; Frank 2-0-2-6; Gibbons 2-0-0-4; Tierra Yates 1-0-1-3; Hamilton 1-0-1-3; Snow 1-0-0-2 (Totals: 15-3-10-49)
T.R. MILLER (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) McCorvey 9-0-2-20; Sanford 7-0-1-15; Lane
See LADY TIGERS Page 2B
3-2-0-12; Smith 5-0-1-11; Walker 2-0-0-4; Peterson 0-1-0-3 (Totals: 26-3-4-10)
Junior varsity
Pensacola 2 4 4 0 – 10
T.R. Miller 9 8 4 7 – 28
PENSACOLA (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Sidbury 3-0-0-6; Madison 1-0-0-2; Norris 1-0-0-2 (Totals: 5-0-0-10)
T.R. MILLER (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Grice 6-0-1-13; Watson 5-0-1-11; Lewis 1-0-0-2;
Redfern 1-0-0-2 (Totals: 13-0-2-28)