TRM girls and varsity beat Excel Friday
Published 10:33 am Monday, January 23, 2012
In a Friday night home area game against the Excel Panthers, the T.R. Miller Lady Tiger and varsity Tiger teams came away with wins while the T.R. Miller Tiger B-team lost.
The Lady Tigers eased their way to a 48-8 win over the Lady Panthers to improve their overall record to 11-7 and area record to 4-1. The win increased the Lady Tigers winning streak to three games.
The varsity Tigers held on to defeat Excel 54-48 to improve to 7-8 overall and to 2-3 in area play.
In B-team action Friday, the Tigers lost to Excel 40-32 to drop to 3-8 and see their losing streak increase to four games.
T.R. Miller played at Washington County Saturday and will be back in action Tuesday at home against Bayside Academy. The area game is set to begin at 4:30 p.m. in Brewton.
Following the Tuesday home game, the Tigers will travel to Bayside Saturday, Jan. 28 and play at Andalusia, Monday, Jan. 30 before ending their regular season with a home game against Hillcrest Friday, Feb. 3.
Excel 40, TRM B-team Tigers 32
A 14-0 run for the Excel Panthers over the second and third quarters spelled an eight-point defeat Friday for the T.R. Miller Tiger B-team.
With T.R. Miller leading 20-14 with 3:25 left in the first half, Excel ended the half on a 10-0 run and increased their run to 14-0 to start the third quarter while holding the Tigers to one point in the quarter to get the win 40-32.
The Tigers of Brewton led 10-8 after one quarter of play before being outscored 16-10 in the second to trail 24-20 at the half.
In the third quarter, the Panthers outscored T.R. Miller 6-1 to increase the lead to 30-21 heading into the fourth quarter.
In the fourth, T.R. Miller held an 11-10 advantage before losing by eight.
Kellyn Winn led the Tigers in the loss with 13 points while Trae Walker added eight. Trin Miller and Dominique Jackson followed with four points and Terry Samuel chipped in two points. Michael Woods added one point in the loss.
T.R. Miller was 4-for-8 from the free throw line in the loss while Excel was 2-for-6.
TRM Lady Tigers 48, Excel 8
In the first quarter of their game with Excel Friday night, the T.R. Miller Lady Tigers saw themselves in a pretty good battle with the Panthers as T.R. Miller led 16-7 with 1:14 left to play in the quarter.
That is when the Lady Tigers would go on a 30-0 run and outscore Excel 32-1 to end the game with a 40-point win, 48-8.
Leading by nine with 1:14 left in the first, the Lady Tigers’ 30-0 run allowed them to lead Excel 46-7 with 6:43 left in the game. Excel would get a free throw with 2:50 left before T.R. Miller got the final points of the game with 1:02 left to play to get the win.
T.R. Miller outscored Excel 18-7 in the first quarter and 10-0 in the second to hold a 28-7 lead at the half.
In the third quarter, T.R. Miller outscored Excel 16-0 to increase their lead to 44-7 heading into the fourth.
In the fourth, T.R. Miller edged out Excel 4-1 to get the big win.
T.R. Miller shot no free throws in the game while Excel was 2-for-6.
Leah Brundidge led the Lady Tigers with 21 points and LaTeysia Montgomery added 11. Morgan Rowell and Jasmine Montgomery both had four points each while Nastarcia Drakeford, Tempest Thompson, O’Nesha Hall and Shakera Nicholson had two points each.
“We are getting a lot of good play out of some of the young kids,” T.R. Miller Lady Tiger head coach Ron Jackson said. “Star Drakeford has really come along. I am just ecstatic about the way she has been playing.”
Jackson said even though Taylor (Guthrie) was not at the game, to get a win like that, it shows that he has a few more people that can step up for his team.
“I don’t know what Star’s stats were like but I know she had at least eight rebounds,” he said. “For her to get eight or nine rebounds and when Taylor comes back and she gets eight or nine rebounds that will be a plus for us either way you look at it. As long as we can put a bigger team on the floor and Tempest (Thompson), a little eighth grader steps up and makes some shots like she did tonight we will be OK. We have been waiting for that. Jasmine Montgomery played pretty well for us tonight and Leah (Brundidge) did her normal things. LaTeysia Montgomery also looked good for us tonight. It looks like we are gelling together here at the end and coming together. If we can keep doing that, we can have a smooth ride to end this thing out.”
TRM varsity Tigers 54, Excel 48
After taking a big lead to start the game Friday against Excel, the T.R. Miller varsity Tigers had to hang on to edge out Excel 54-48.
T.R. Miller jumped out to an early 15-3 lead and led Excel 15-7 after the first quarter of play.
In the second quarter, Excel looked to have cut the Tiger lead to 20-16 at the half, but Darrion Salter connected for a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give T.R. Miller a 23-16 lead at the half.
In the third quarter, Excel would edge out the Tigers 10-9 to cut the lead to 32-26 heading into the fourth quarter.
In the fourth, Excel cut the Tiger lead to 43-30 with 4:16 left before the Tigers went on a 5-0 run to hold a 48-40 lead with 3:01 left in the game.
Excel would get as close as 50-46 with 1:21 left to play, but the Tigers hit their free throws down the stretch to get the win.
Both teams would score 22 points in the quarter as T.R. Miller got the win by six, 54-48.
T.R. Miller shot 16-for-29 from the free throw line in the win while Excel was 11-for-22. The Tigers was 6-for-10 from the line in the final 2:09 of the game.
“I think we showed a lot of heart tonight,” T.R. Miller varsity head coach Ron Jackson said. “We made free throws and played tough defense and we laid it out there. Excel did an excellent job of getting ready for us. We pulled it out.”
Salter led T.R. Miller with 22 points in the win and Kameron Winn followed with 13. Mark Bryant added 10 points and Jaquan Dewberry finished with six points. Caleb Dickey added three points for T.R. Miller in the win.