By By Adam Robinson – Sports Editor
After a hard-fought loss to Andalusia Tuesday night, the T.R. Miller Tigers rebounded with a 63-31 win over W.S. Neal Friday night in East Brewton.
With the win, the Tigers improved to 10-6 and 2-3 in area play, while W.S. Neal, playing their third game in four days, fell to 4-15 overall and 0-5 in area play.
For a young Neal team coming off a no-win season last year, the game was another challenge, especially facing a team that advanced to the final four last year in Birmingham.
In Friday's game, W.S. Neal took a 1-0 lead on a free throw by Chris Payne at the 7:09 mark, but that would be their only lead in the game as the Tigers went on an 8-0 run to take an 8-1 lead with 5:48 left in the opening quarter.
After another made free throw by the Eagles that cut the Tiger lead to 8-2 with 5:26 left, the Tigers outscored the Eagles 9-4 over the final minutes in the quarter to hold a 17-6 first quarter lead.
The second quarter was just about the same for the Tigers and Eagles as T.R. Miller scored 17 in the quarter to the Eagles seven en route to a 34-13 lead at the break.
Top scorers for the Tigers, Brandon Andrews and Terry Hetherington, scored 11 of their 28 points in the second quarter as the Tigers used a 10-0 run to build a 27-8 lead before Neal's Jeremy Nicholson added a bucket to end the run.
After Nicholson's basket cut the lead to 27-10, T.R. Miller used a 7-3 run to hold a 34-13 lead at the half.
In the second half, the Tigers continued their dominance and outscored the Eagles 15-5 in the second half and 29-18 over the final two quarters to take the 63-31 win.
Jeremy Nicholson led the Eagles with 16 points.
T.R. Miller will be back in action on Tuesday at home against Escambia County, and W.S. Neal will return to the court Thursday at home against J.U. Blacksher.