By By Adam Robinson – Sports Editor
After not defeating T.R. Miller in basketball since 2000 and already picking up their first win this year over the Tigers in eight seasons, the W.S. Neal Eagles finished off a sweep of the Tigers Tuesday night in Brewton with a 55-41 win and picking up their third win over T.R. Miller this season.
The win for the Eagles improved W.S. Neal to 12-7 while T.R. Miller dropped to 2-11.
While the win over the Tigers was the Eagles third this season over T.R. Miller and first in eight years, W.S. Neal Eagle head coach Blaine Hathcock said there was something else more important.
While Hathcock was happy for the win, T.R. Miller Tiger head coach Marc Edge gave credit to Hathcock and his team.
of the game and they made plays when they had to and we didn't,” Edge said. “I thought we played good defense and rebounded well and handled the pressure relatively well. We ended up forcing action and taking bad shots and we basically shot ourselves out of the game. We let the tempo of the game control us instead of us taking control of it. We didn't work the ball enough on offense.”
Edge said you can't play with a mindset of not losing or playing to not lose, you have to play to win the game.
Derrick Riley led all scorers in the game and T.R. Miller with 21 points despite the loss for the Tigers. Corey Redfearn chipped in six points along with six from Joe McCorvey.
Jeremy Nicholson poured in 20 points to lead W.S. Neal in the win. Bob Elliott scored 10 points and William Shell added nine points for the Eagles in the win.
T.R. Miller led 11-7 after the first quarter, but W.S. Neal cut the lead to 21-19 with a 12-10 scoring advantage in the second quarter.
In the third quarter, W.S. Neal outscored T.R. Miller 16-6 to grab a 35-27 lead and then took the 14-point win with a 20-14 scoring advantage in the fourth quarter.
After an 8-3 Tiger lead in the first quarter with 2:06 left in the quarter, W.S. Neal cut the lead to 8-5 but saw T.R. Miller hold an 11-7 lead at the end of the first.
In the second quarter, T.R. Miller built an 18-11 lead with 6:15 left to play, but from that point, the Eagles used an 8-0 run to take a 19-18 lead with 3:50 left to go before the half.
Nicholson led the way for the Eagles scoring eight points in the quarter and six in the Eagle run.
A Justin Payne late 3-pointer gave the Tigers a 21-19 lead at the half.
In the third quarter, T.R. Miller looked to stay in control of the game as Riley scored on a dunk to give T.R Miller a 27-23 lead with 4:33 left in the quarter.
After the dunk by Riley, W.S. Neal came alive and went on a 12-0 run in the quarter to hold a 35-27 lead heading into the final quarter of play.
In the fourth quarter, with W.S. Neal leading 39-31, Nicholson put the exclamation on the Eagle win with a monstrous dunk sending the crowd of Eagle fans into a tizzy to give the Eagles a 42-31 lead with 6:29 left to play.
Like the Riley dunk for T.R. Miller spike the Eagles, Nicholson's dunk seemed to help the Tigers for a while as they closed the gap to 42-37, but from that point the Eagles hit 11-of-20 free throws down the stretch after the Tigers were forced to foul and the Eagles won 55-41.
The Eagles will not be back in action at home until Friday, Jan. 30, against Flomaton.
The T.R. Miller Tigers will be back in action on Thursday against Cottage Hill at home at 4:30 p.m.