By By BRUCE HIXON – Sports Editor
Constant roster adjustments have made the regular season a challenging one for the T.R. Miller Lady Tigers and coach Ron Jackson.
Yet when the dust settled, T.R. Miller steamrolled its way across the regular season finish line Friday with a 24-4 record when it suffocated the host Monroe County Lady Tigers 48-5.
While Friday's lopsided victory allowed him to give many of his bench members some valuable minutes, it was not the kind of postseason tune-up Jackson wanted.
The overmatched Monroe County squad got a first quarter bucket by Jessica Hixon and a second quarter three-pointer by Shantel Lett and nothing else over the last 20 minutes. T.R. Miller scored the game's final 27 points.
T.R. Miller's initial surge was a 15-0 run that covered most of the first quarter and the opening moments of the second period that took the lead to 21-2.
Jasmine Sanford had a nice streak of her own during that run, as she scored 10 straight points for T.R. Miller. Joy McCorvey had the other six.
Seven players contributed in the 27-0 run to end the game, as McCorvey (seven points) and Sanford (six) again led the surge.
T.R. Miller will host the Class 3A Area 1 Tournament that kicks off Thursday when second-seeded Clarke County meets third-seeded Straughn at 5:30 p.m. The top-seeded Lady Tigers face fourth-seeded W.S. Neal at 7 p.m. The two winners will return Saturday for the Area championship game at 7 p.m.
At Monroe County
T.R. Miller 19 8 11 10 – 48
Monroe County 2 3 0 0 – 5
T.R. MILLER (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) McCorvey 7-0-3-17; Sanford 7-0-2-16; Kes. Peterson 2-0-0-4; Grice 1-0-1-3; Key. Peterson 0-1-0-3; A. Williams 0-0-2-2; N. Smith 1-0-0-2; Barton 0-0-1-1 (Totals: 18-1-9-48)
MONROE COUNTY (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Lett 0-1-0-3; Hixon 1-0-0-2 (Totals: 1-1-0-5)
Lady Tigers down Flomaton
A big second quarter surge carried T.R. Miller to a 44-29 road win over the Flomaton Lady Hurricanes Tuesday.
It was T.R. Miller's third win of the season over Flomaton to go along with a 57-41 victory at the Escambia County Tournament and a 52-40 win at Brewton.
Flomaton had a 9-5 lead after a quarter when the Lady Tigers made their move thanks to one likely source and one not so likely.
Jasmine Sanford helped trigger the 18-4 run that quarter that gave T.R. Miller a 23-13 halftime lead with four field goals in that frame. Just as big was the production Zykeya Barton delivered from off the bench, as she drained a clutch three-pointer to go along with another field goal.
Joy McCorvey, who was held to only 10 points, came up with a couple of buckets in the third quarter when the Lady Tigers extended their advantage to 33-18.
At Flomaton
T.R. Miller 5 18 10 11 – 44
Flomaton 9 4 5 11 – 29
T.R. MILLER (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Sanford 8-0-0-16; McCorvey 3-0-4-10; Key. Peterson 1-1-0-5; Barton 1-1-0-5; Grice 2-0-0-4; Walker 1-0-0-2; Green 1-0-0-2 (Totals: 17-2-4-44)
FLOMATON (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Lisenby 2-1-4-11; Cayson 4-0-1-9; Williams 3-0-1-7; Conrad 1-0-0-2 (Totals: 10-1-6-29)