By By BRUCE HIXON Sports Editor
Although they had already wrapped up the Class 3A Area 1 regular season championship the week before, the T.R. Miller Lady Tigers added a little icing to that cake when they finished off a perfect Area season Friday with a 43-27 win at Straughn.
Up just 13-12 a minute into the second quarter, T.R. Miller (21-1 overall and 6-0 in the Area) ended the first half on a 10-0 run and extended that run to 12-0 and its lead up to 25-12 by early in the third quarter.
Although the Lady Tigers have not gotten a lot of point production from their bench this season, sophomore Rebecca Scott provided a big spark Friday when she hit three field goals, including two three-pointers, in the third quarter when T.R. Miller ran its lead up to 35-19.
Joy McCorvey and Jasmine Sanford both had 10 points to pace the Lady Tigers.
T.R. Miller begins its final week of regular season play Tuesday when it hosts Flomaton.
At Straughn
T.R. Miller 10 13 12 8 – 43
Straughn 9 3 7 8 – 27
T.R. MILLER (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Sanford 5-0-0-10; McCorvey 5-0-0-10; Scott 1-2-0-8; Smith 3-0-0-6; Lane 1-0-4-6; Peterson 0-1-0-3 (Totals: 15-3-4-43)
STRAUGHN (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Bracewell 4-2-3-17; Parker 0-0-3-3; Steele 1-0-1-3; Daniels 1-0-0-2; Nall 1-0-0-2 (Totals: 7-2-7-27)
Tuesday's game
The Lady Tigers hit the 20-win plateau for the season Tuesday when they rallied to beat the visiting Escambia County Lady Blue Devils 53-33.
It was T.R. Miller's third win of the season over its county rival. While it was not the closest margin of those three contests, it was the hardest of the three wins to obtain.
The Lady Tigers began the game in a 7-0 hole, which was the most they had trailed by since they overcame a 15-point deficit against Pensacola at the Fort Walton Beach Tournament back in November.
Despite the slow start, T.R. Miller recovered with three field goals by Joy McCorvey and a hoop and two free throws by Jasmine Sanford to take a 10-7 lead by the end of the frame.
Anushka Banks' bucket at the start of the second quarter briefly cut T.R. Miller's advantage down to just a point before T.R. Miller started another surge.
McCorvey ignited a 16-4 run in multiple ways with a pair of buckets and a free throw, a couple of steals, an assist and five of her 18 rebounds.
T.R. Miller actually ended the half on a 26-6 run after it fell behind 7-0 to take a 26-13 halftime lead.
Escambia County (6-14) battled back on the strength of four field goals by Tinekka Lett in the third quarter and pulled within eight points on a pair of occasions.
Late in the frame the Lady Blue Devils' hopes of a comeback probably disappeared when Lett was injured in a collision near the wall and did not return to action.
Escambia County was down 35-27 at the time of her injury. While the margin was still only eight points, 39-31, a minute into the fourth quarter, T.R. Miller quickly finished things off.
Sanford came up with four buckets, two off assists from McCorvey, and McCorvey contributed a steal for a layup and an offensive rebound bucket that doubled the lead from eight to 16 points at 49-33 in a span of four minutes.
At T.R. Miller
Escambia Co. 7 6 16 4 – 33
T.R. Miller 10 16 11 16 – 53
ESCAMBIA COUNTY (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Lett 6-0-0-12; Sanders 5-0-1-11; Banks 2-0-0-4; Jones 1-0-0-2; B. Lee 1-0-0-2; English 1-0-0-2 (Totals: 16-0-1-33)
T.R. MILLER (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) McCorvey 10-0-2-22; Sanford 8-0-3-19; Lane 0-2-2-8; Smith 1-0-0-2; Scott 1-0-0-2 (Totals: 20-2-7-53)