By By Adam Robinson
sports editor
Last year against Madison Academy in the class 3A state championship, the T.R. Miller Lady Tigers found themselves down by 10 points at the half and rallied to get the win and the state championship.
Wednesday in the Final Four class 3A semifinal game against Madison, there would be no comeback. The Lady Tigers had their chance at repeating crushed with an 81-36 loss and finish the season with a 26-3 record.
T.R. Miller tied the game at 4-4 after Madison Academy jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, but that would be as close as they would get. The Lady Tigers never led the game and were outscored 21-10 in the first quarter and 10-8 in the second quarter to trail by 13 points at halftime, 31-18.
In the second half and third quarter, a quarter that the Lady Tigers used to rally in last year, Madison (35-3) jumped out to a 7-0 run and outscored T.R. Miller by 10 points, 24-14, to head into the fourth quarter on top 55-32. In the fourth quarter, Madison outscored T.R. Miller 26-4 and held the Lady Tigers scoreless the last 5:53 of the game while ending the game on a 19-0 run to win by 45 points.
The Lady Tigers shot 33 percent from the field in the game to Madison’s 71 percent and was 3-for-17 from the 3-point area while Madison was 5-for-7.
The Lady Tigers were 5-for-15 from the free throw line for 33 percent while Madison was 16-of-21 for 76 percent.
The Lady Mustangs out-rebounded T.R. Miller 30-17 and had 22 bench points to none for the Lady Tigers.
The Madison Academy players said that some of the win was payback from last years lost in the final to T.R. Miller.
Privett said the run after halftime this year was big after giving up the lead last year after halftime.
Nakiya Smith led T.R. Miller with 15 points and Leah Brundidge added 11 points. Keydra Shedrone had 10 points.
Courtney Jones led with five rebounds and Brundidge had five assists.
Jackson said the early lead for Madison Academy in the game Wednesday had some to do with last year.
Jackson said he had four or five players on his team that could play and hold their own and then after that, they struggled some.
Jackson said Madison Academy’s defense played tough against his team.