By By Adam Robinson
sports editor
For the first time in two seasons, the T.R. Miller Lady Tiger basketball team suffered a loss to a team from Alabama on Monday at the Clarke County Holiday Classic. The Lady Tigers lost to Thomasville 41-39.
The last loss to a team from Alabama was during the 2007-2008 season when the Lady Tigers lost to Deshler in the semifinals of the state Final Four games in Birmingham.
T.R. Miller had five losses that season with three coming from Florida schools and an earlier loss coming from UMS-Wright.
Last season, the Lady Tigers had two losses with both coming from teams in Florida and Tennessee.
The loss Monday dropped the Lady Tigers to 8-2 this season.
In a game marred by fouls Monday, the Lady Tigers shot 7-of-14 from the free throw line while Thomasville shot 31 and sank 17.
While fouls played a major part in the game, another major factor was with the Lady Tigers of Brewton leading 39-33 with 4:56 left to play in the game. That would be the final points of the night for T.R. Miller as they were held scoreless while Thomasville went on an 8-0 run to end the game and take the win.
With a six-point lead for T.R. Miller, Thomasville cut the lead to 39-35 with a two-point basket at the 2:48 point in the game. They would later cut the lead to three points at the 2:20 mark at 39-36.
T.R. Miller had a chance to make it a five-point game with 1:32 left to play but missed two free throws as Thomasville grabbed the rebound. As a bonus, they were allowed two free throws.
A mysterious technical foul against the Lady Tigers added two more shots for Thomasville as they made 1-of-4 to cut the lead to 39-27 with just under a minute and a half to play.
Thomasville pushed their run to 6-0 with two more made free throws at the 1:08 mark and with 18.1 seconds left in the game claimed a 41-39 lead.
Shots for the Lady Tigers missed as time expired and Thomasville grabbed the stunning win over T.R. Miller.
The game was tied 11-11 after the first quarter only to see T.R. Miller grab a 19-15 lead at the half with a 6-0 run to end the second quarter.
T.R. Miller had three 3-pointers to start the game and had four in the first half.
In the third quarter, T.R. Miller held a 9-7 advantage to take a 28-22 lead into the fourth quarter only to be outscored 19-11 in the fourth quarter and 8-0 in the final five minutes to suffer the loss.
Nakiya Smith led T.R. Miller with 24 points and Keydra Shedrone had nine points.
Leah Brundidge added four points in the loss and Brittany Rush had two points.
T.R. Miller was set to take on Clarke County on Tuesday in the tournament and will play Marengo today at 4:30 p.m.