By By Adam Robinson – sports editor
After being pounded by the Andalusia Bulldogs last week in Andalusia, the T.R. Miller B team responded with a 30-20 win over W.S. Neal Friday night in East Brewton.
With the win, T.R. Miller improved to 5-4 on the season as W.S. Neal dropped to 5-11.
T.R. Miller 30, W.S. Neal 20
Friday night's game between T.R. Miller and W.S. Neal was by far not the prettiest game of the season for either team.
After T.R. Miller held a 7-2 in the first quarter of play, the Eagles responded with nine points in the second quarter while holding T.R. Miller to three points to hold a one-point advantage at the half at 11-10.
In the second half of the game, the Tigers came out on fire as they outscored the Eagles 20-9 in the second half to take the win 30-20.
After taking an early 4-0 lead in the first, W.S. Neal cut the Tiger lead to 4-2 with 4:47 left in the quarter after Jonathan Thames scored for the Eagles.
That would be the only points in the quarter for the Eagles as T.R. Miller went on to add a 3-pointer from Terez Lane with 4:02 left to give the Tigers a 7-2 lead.
Neither team would score any points in the rest of the quarter.
In the second quarter, W.S. Neal went on a 9-0 run to take an 11-7 lead as they held the Tigers scoreless for 5:21 seconds in the quarter.
Miller added three points in the final 39 seconds of the quarter to cut the Eagle lead to 11-10 at the half.
In the third quarter of play, W.S. Neal took a 14-10 lead, but the Tigers went on a 6-0 run of their own to take a 16-14 lead with 4:14 when Cortez Banks scored for Miller.
After the Eagles tied the game at 16-all, T.R. Miller used another 6-0 run to give the Tigers a 22-16 lead as they held a 24-18 lead heading into the final quarter of play.
In the fourth, W.S. Neal got two free throws from Monterius Culliver to cut the Tiger lead to 24-20 with 4:21 left, but just like the first quarter, that would be all the points the Eagles would manage as T.R. Miller scored six points over the final 1:47 of the game to take a 30-20 win.
Lane led the Tigers with 11 points as Thomas led the Eagles with seven.
T.R. Miller was back in action on Tuesday when they took on Escambia County at home and W.S. Neal will be back in action on Thursday when they host J. U. Blacksher.
Both games will begin at 4:30 p.m.
T.R. Miller 30, Andalusia 59
Eight minutes: That may not seem like that long in a 24-hour day, but in a basketball game, it is a very long time.
In a span lasting over two quarters, the T.R. Miller B team did not score for eight minutes as the Andalusia Bulldog B team went on a 23-0 run to take a 7-6 lead to 30-6 en route to a 30-8 halftime lead and a 59-30 win over T.R. Miller Tuesday night in Andalusia.
With the loss, the Tigers dropped to 4-4 on the season.
After taking an early 2-0 lead in the game, Andalusia stormed back to tie the game and take a 7-2 lead with 3:28 left in the first quarter of play.
T.R. Miller came back with a run of their own to get within one point of the lead at 7-6 with 3:03 left after leading scorer Terez Lane picked off an Andalusia pass.
That would be all the scoring for the Tigers in the first quarter and just about all the scoring for the Tigers in the first half as Andalusia went on a 23-0 run to take a 30-6 lead with 2:09 left in the half.
T.R. Miller got two points before quarters end when Derrick Riley scored for the Tigers as T.R. Miller trailed 30-8 at the half.
The third quarter was much of the same for the Tigers as Andalusia put together runs of 9-0 and 5-0 in the quarter and took a 17-8 scoring advantage in the quarter to hold a 47-16 lead at the end of the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, the Tigers began to show signs of life as they scored 14 points in the quarter, two points shy of the Tigers point total in the previous three quarters combined, but the damage had already been done as the Bulldog's lead was too much to overcome as they went on for the 29-point win.