Through three quarters Friday in Grove Hill, the T.R. Miller varsity boys basketball team was hanging close with the No. 1 seed Clarke County Bulldogs in the semi-finals of the area tournament.
After three quarters, T.R. Miller trailed Clarke County by four points, 32-28—then came the fourth quarter.
In the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs showed why they were the No. 1 team in the tournament and ranked highly in the class 3A state polls as they outscored T.R. Miller 21-9 in the final quarter to get a 16-point win, 53-37.
The loss for the Tigers ended their season with an 8-14 record.
In the game Friday, Clarke County led the Tigers of Brewton by one point, 9-8 before holding a 13-8 advantage in the second quarter to lead 22-16 at the half.
T.R. Miller would come out in the second half and post a 12-10 advantage in the third quarter to cut the lead to four points, 32-28 heading into the fourth.
Darrion Salter led the Tigers with 13 points while Kameron Winn added eight. Jaquan Dewberry finished with six points while Mark Bryant had five. Marc Edge added three points and Caleb Dickey finished with two.
Clarke County’s largest lead in the game was four points with 3:00 left to go in the fourth quarter.
The Tigers were 0-for-10 from free throw line in the second half. Clarke County was 15-for-18 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter.
One possibly reason the Tigers may have went cold in the fourth quarter was due to a 20-minute delay at the end of third quarter as one of Clarke County’s players fell on his back and was injured forcing a 911 call.
T.R. Miller was 0-for-14 from the 3-point line in the first half.
Dickey and Winn made the all-area team for the Tigers.