By Staff
With Saturday's 51-24 win over archrival W.S. Neal in the girls Escambia County tournament finale, the T.R. Miller Lady Tigers proved once again that they are the best girls basketball team in the county.
With the win, the Lady Tigers improved to 20-1 in Escambia County tournament games since the tournament began back in 2001.
The Tigers have gone a perfect 3-0 in tournament games from 2001-2005 and most recent in this year's tournament.
The Tigers only defeat was in last year's tournament when they fell to Escambia County 49-39 in the championship game.
Before last years loss to Escambia County, the T.R. Miller Lady Tigers were 17-0 in tournament games.
While much of the success of the program goes to the past and present players, a lot of the success goes to Lady Tiger head coach Ron Jackson.
Coach Jackson's first year at T.R. Miller was the 1992-1993 season. Jackson also coached the T.R. Miller boy's team until the 1999-2000 season when current Tiger head coach Rob Atkinson took over.
T.R. Miller has won three state championships (1995, 1996, 2002) under coach Jackson and has won eight regional championships from 1995-2006 and a state runner up in the 2004 season.
During coach Jackson's tenure at Miller, the Lady Tigers won 62 consecutive games from 1994-1996.
Defense has always been something that Jackson teaches his squads and it can be seen in the stats from this week.
In this year's tournament games, T.R. Miller outscored their opponents by a total of 70 points in the three games played. That is an average of 23.3 points a game.
T.R. Miller defeated Escambia County in the opener Thursday night by 14 points, Flomaton by 29 points and W.S. Neal by 27 in the Saturday finale.
T.R. Miller averaged 48 points a game in scoring as they totaled 145 during the three-day tournament.
T.R. Miller outscored their opponents by 14 in the first quarter, six in the second, 26 in the third and 24 in the fourth quarter.
Even though there are more than just three county tournament games on the schedule, the 20-1 record in the county tournament over the seven-year span is a remarkable feat to accomplish.
I want to wish all area teams the best of luck this week and wish everyone a Merry Christmas.