By By BRUCE HIXON Sports Editor
After his team played its last game at the T.R. Miller Summer Basketball Tournament, Tigers coach Rob Atkinson sat in his office and breathed a big sigh of relief.
Actually, it was more appropriately a sigh of exhaustion.
It was not the eight games his varsity Tigers played or their 4-4 record that led to Atkinson's fatigue. Most of it could be blamed on Mother Nature, in particular Tropical Storm Arlene.
The Tigers finished their portion of the tournament with a 4-4 record with wins over Northview (Fla.), Excel, Smiths Station and Monroe County. Their losses came against J.F. Shields, Monroe County, Baldwin County and Satsuma.
Atkinson feels bench play is one area where his team, which is coming off a 19-9 campaign, is way ahead of where it was a year ago.
Atkinson said his team's lack of varsity experience showed up at times during the tournament.
Atkinson said the Tigers showed some flashes of being able to replace their top three-pointer shooter of a year ago, Damien Jackson.
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some shots down from outside and so was Jordan Knight," Atkinson said.
Defense is probably the area where Atkinson said his team still needs to improve the most.