By BY BRUCE HIXON – SPORTS EDITOR
The T.R. Miller Tigers may not have come away from the Bank of Brewton/T.R. Miller Christmas Tournament with a championship, but they did come away with a tournament record.
The Tigers set the tournament mark for fewest points allowed in a game with their 57-19 victory over Jay, Fla. in the opening round.
T.R. Miller and Niceville, Fla. both set the old record of 29 points at the 2005 tournament. The Tigers got their piece of the record when they beat Georgiana 48-29 in last year's opening round, while Niceville matched that figure in its 48-29 championship semifinal win over J.F. Shields.
The old tournament record of 29 points was beaten again in this year's consolation championship game when Mobile Christian topped Jay 51-25.
Jay tied the record for fewest points in the tournament with 96. The Royals had games of 19, 52 and 25 to earn a piece of the dubious distinction. W.S. Neal also scored just 96 points in its three games in the 2004 tournament with games of 33, 31 and 32.
Flomaton went winless at the Bank of Brewton Tournament for the second year in a row. In fact, the Hurricanes have dropped their last seven games in the tournament since they beat W.S. Neal 59-32 in the 2004 consolation semifinals.
Flomaton's seven-game losing streak is one shy of the tournament record of eight straight set by W.S. Neal. The Blue Eagles beat Central in the first round of the 2002 tournament and never won another game before they pulled out of the 2004 event.
Northview's Nakita Myles easily won the tournament individual scoring title with 72 points. Myles had games of 28 against Excel, 25 against T.R. Miller and 19 against Monroe County.
Flomaton's Scott Walton was a distant second with 52 points, while Northview's Vincent Longmire was third with 44. Mobile Christian's Courtnee Edgar was fourth with 43.
Terry Hetherington and Brandon Andrews both scored 36 points to pace T.R. Miller over its three games.
It is rare to see a tournament's Most Valuable Player Award winner, in this case J.F. Shields' Jeffery Finklea, go scoreless in a championship game. Finklea was also not around when the game ended, as he fouled out early in overtime.
Finklea made his presence known inside on the boards.
T.R. Miller coach Rob Atkinson felt the tournament had a smooth transition from the 16-team event of a year ago to the original eight-team format for this season.
workers it takes to run a tournament like this,” said Atkinson. &#8220My wife, Lisa, did a lot of work with the hospitality room and we had great backing from our administration. (Principal) Donnie Rotch and (athletic director) Jamie Riggs were here throughout the tournament and made sure things went right.”