By By Adam Robinson-sports editor
The T.R. Miller Lady Tigers sucessfully defended their title in the Escambia County Tournament championship game Monday night in Atmore by defeating W.S. Neal's Lady Eagles, 46-14.
The win improved T.R. Miller to 7-1 with seven straight wins. W.S. Neal fell to 7-4.
It was the Lady Tigers second straight tournament win as they improved to 23-1 in tournament games. The only loss for T.R. Miller in tournament was back in 2006 when they lost to Escambia County in the tournament finale.
Tournament MVP Kesha Peterson led the Lady Tigers with 10 points. Nakiya Smith and Ashley Williams, both all-tournament team members, finished with nine points in the win.
Keyvonnia Kyles led W.S. Neal with seven points and all-tournament team member Katie Elliott with five points.
W.S. Neal grabbed an early lead against T.R. Miller when Elliott gave the Lady Eagles a 2-0 lead with 7:12 left in the first quarter.
Those two points from Elliott would be the Lady Eagles only two points of the first quarter and only two points for a long time-until 17.8 left in the second quarter.
After the Lady Eagles took their opening 2-0 lead, the Lady Tigers used a 6-0 run to end the first quarter and continued on their run and extended it to 24-0 to take a 24-2 lead with 28.6 seconds left in the half.
Kyles ended the Lady Tiger run to cut the lead to 24-4 at the half.
Peterson led T.R. Miller with six points in the run followed by four from Smith.
Ashley Williams and Shaniqua Kiser had three points in the run. Keydra Shedrone, MyNetra Boley, Desiree Gibbs, and Zykeya Barton had two points in the run.
T.R. Miller used a 7-3 run in the third quarter to extend their run to 31-7 at the end of the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, the Lady Tigers went on a 10-0 run to hold a 39-7 with 5:27 left in the game and defeated the Lady Eagles from East Brewton by 32 points, 46-14 to win the Escambia County tournament.