By By BRUCE HIXON – Sports Editor
There is nothing wrong with the cruise control button on the vehicle Ron Jackson drives these days.
His vehicle, better known as the T.R. Miller Lady Tigers, rolled to its eight straight win Friday when it pummeled the visiting Monroe County Lady Tigers 59-22.
During the eight-game winning streak T.R. Miller (9-1) has won each contest by double digits with the closest decision being a 12-point win at Andalusia. Its average margin of victory has been 28.6 points a game.
In most of those games, including Friday's, the outcome was decided well before halftime arrived.
It was a 28-0 first half tear by the Lady Tigers that did in Monroe County (2-8). T.R. Miller had a modest 10-4 lead with three minutes left in the first quarter when it went on its long run. By the time the blitz ended with one minute left in the first half, T.R. Miller's lead had swelled to 38-4.
Jasmine Sanford, who scored all 18 of her points in the first half, had a pretty good streak of her own during the run when she scored the first 11 points of that 28-0 run during the first quarter.
Joy McCorvey, who had four steals during the run, had 10 of her 14 first half points during the 28-0 blitz. McCorvey matched Sanford's 18 points for team and game high scoring honors.
The T.R. Miller starting unit left the floor for good with four minutes left in the third quarter and the Lady Tigers up 50-11 at the time. T.R. Miller's bench was outscored 11-9 over the final 12 minutes.
The host Lady Tigers were able to pick up some production from their bench personnel. Mynetra Bolly came in and chipped in a pair of buckets, Zykeya Barton nailed a three-pointer and Kesha Peterson connected for a field goal from down low.
T.R. Miller will open up play at the Oxford Tournament Thursday where it will face Etowah at 3 p.m. The Lady Tigers will close out the tournament Friday when they face Oxford at 6 p.m.
The Lady Tigers have also learned they have drawn a first-round matchup against UMS-Wright in the opening round of the Spring Hill College Tournament to be played at Mobile. That game will be Decemeber 27 at 11 a.m. If T.R. Miller wins that game, it will face the McGill-Toolen/Huffman winner December 28 at 8 p.m. A loss to UMS-Wright would send the Lady Tigers to the consolation bracket where they would face the McGill-Toolen/Huffman loser December 28 at 2 p.m.
At T.R. Miller
Monroe Co. 4 3 11 4 – 22
T.R. Miller 22 20 10 7 – 59
MONROE COUNTY (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Lee 3-1-0-9; Williams 1-1-0-5; Farr 2-0-0-4; Hixon 1-0-0-2; Rivers 1-0-0-2 (Totals: 8-2-0-22)
T.R. MILLER (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Sanford 8-2-0-18; McCorvey 9-0-0-18; Smith 3-0-0-6; Key. Peterson 1-1-0-5; Bolly 2-0-0-4; Barton 0-1-0-3; Kes. Peterson 1-0-0-2; Grice 1-0-0-2; Brown 0-0-1-1 (Totals: 25-2-3-59)