By By Adam Robinson – Sports Editor
First quarter Lady Tigers. Second quarter Lady Jaguars. Third quarter Lady Tigers. Fourth quarter Lady Jaguars? How about Lady Tigers and Lady Jaguars.
That is how the scoring advantages went in Friday night's area game battle between the T.R. Miller Lady Tigers and the Hillcrest High School Lady Jaguars.
The Lady Tigers took the first quarter by six points while surrendering their lead to a 9-2 scoring advantage for the Lady Jaguars in the second quarter of play.
In the third quarter, the Lady Tigers gained back the advantage by outscoring Hillcrest by six, as the fourth quarter was equal in scoring at 9-9.
Add all that up and you get a 36-31 win for the T.R. Miller Lady Tigers as they improved to 10-4 on the season and 3-0 in area play.
Nakiya Smith led the Lady Tigers with 15 points in the win.
In the win Friday night, T.R. Miller quickly took a 2-0 lead when Catherine Green connected on a two-pointer for the Lady Tigers with 6:46 left in the first.
After Hillcrest went on a quick 4-0 run to take a 4-2 lead with 5:54, the Tigers responded with a 3-pointer by Ashley Williams that gave them a 5-4 lead with 5:34 left.
After taking a 7-4 lead, Hillcrest cut the Lady Tiger lead to 7-6 with 4:05 left in the quarter.
That would be all the points the Lady Jaguars from Evergreen would score in the quarter as Smith and Keydra Shedrone added a 3-pointer with 51.1 seconds left in the first quarter of play to give the Lady Tigers a 12-6 lead heading into the second quarter of play.
After scoring 12 points in the first quarter, the Lady Tigers only managed two points in the second quarter while Hillcrest scored nine points in the quarter to take a 15-14 lead at the halftime break.
After a lengthy halftime chat in the locker room, T.R. Miller Lady Tiger head coach Ron Jackson's speech must have fired the Lady Tigers up as they scored 13 points in the quarter while only surrendering seven to hold a six-point advantage in the third quarter and take a five-point advantage in the game as they held a 27-22 lead at the end of the third.
In the third, the Lady Tigers fell behind 19-14 before Smith scored seven points in a row for the Tigers and nine points in the quarter to give the Tigers a 23-20 lead with 1:54 left before the fourth.
Shedrone and Green added the other four points in the quarter to give the Lady Tigers a 25-20 lead before Hillcrest scored to cut the lead to three at 25-22 with 1:03 left. Smith got points eight and nine in the quarter with .8 seconds left as she connected for two free throws to give the Tigers a 27-22 lead.
In the fourth quarter, Hillcrest opened with a two-pointer to cut the lead to 27-24 with 7:50 left.
Hillcrest cut the Lady Tiger lead to one point on their next offensive series when they connected for two free throws to cut the lead to 27-26 with 4:52.
T.R. Miller finally got on the board in the fourth when they got three points from Kesha Peterson to take a 30-26 lead with 3:19 left.
After T.R. Miller took a 32-29 lead at the 1:53 mark, Hillcrest cut the lead to 32-31 with 1:39 left.
With 1:08 left, the Lady Tigers took a 34-31 lead after Briana Gatlin's two-pointer and added two late free throws from Green to seal the win at 36-31 and stay unbeaten in area play.
The Tigers were looking to stay in the win column overall and in area play on Tuesday when they traveled to Andalusia to take on the Bulldogs in another key area game.
The Lady Tigers will be back in action on Friday when they travel to East Brewton to take on rival W.S. Neal in an area game between the two teams. Game time is scheduled to being at 4:30 with B teams game as girls and varsity action will follow.