In their first meeting of the season Friday and first area games of the season, the T.R. Miller and W.S. Neal basketball teams squared off against each other in Brewton.
In the B-team game, T.R. Miller improved to 3-1 as they downed W.S. Neal 46-16 for their third straight win. W.S. Neal fell to 0-7.
In the girls game, W.S. Neal rallied to stun T.R. Miller 29-25 for their first win of the season. W.S. Neal improved to 1-5 overall and to 1-0 in area play while T.R. Miller fell to 0-7 overall and to 0-1 in area play.
In the varsity boys game, T.R. Miller claimed a 57-41 win over W.S. Neal for their second straight win as they improved to 2-2 overall and to 1-0 in area play. W.S. Neal dropped to 2-5 overall and to 0-1 in area play with their fourth straight loss.

TRM B-team 46, WSN 16
T.R. Miller’s B-team used runs of 16-0 and 14-0 to help propel them to a 30-point win over W.S. Neal Friday night at home by a score of 46-16.
Leading W.S. Neal 4-3 with 1:48 left in the first quarter, the Tigers ended the first quarter on a 6-0 run to hold a 10-3 lead after one quarter of play.
From there, the Tigers built a 16-0 run in the second quarter to increase their lead to 20-3 with 3:31 left before the half. T.R. Miller would go on and outscore W.S. Neal 14-4 in the quarter to grab a 24-7 lead at the half.
In the third quarter, T.R. Miller held W.S. Neal to only two points while putting together a 14-0 run to outscore the Eagles 22-2. T.R. Miller went on to lead W.S. Neal 46-9 heading into the final quarter of play.
In the fourth, with a running clock, W.S. Neal ended the game on a 7-0 run, but the Tigers of T.R. Miller were able to hang on for the win.
Leading T.R. Miller in the win was Tamerick Jenkins as he had 11 points. Austin Holmes added 10 points and Markail Mitchell added eight points along with Brooks Brown. Ahmaud Taylor chipped in four points, Hayden Atkinson had three points and Joshua Jolly had two points.
For W.S. Neal, Darius Tolbert led with six points, Tray-D Jones had three along with De’Ron Smith. Eddie Murphy and Peyton Salter had two points each in the loss.
T.R. Miller shot 1-for-7 from the free throw line while W.S. Neal was 5-for-11.

WSN girls 29, TRM 25
For what is believed to be the first time since 1993, the W.S. Neal Lady Eagles basketball team defeated the T.R. Miller Lady Tigers in a battle of winless teams Friday night in Brewton 29-25.
Trailing 22-20 after three quarter and 25-24 with 3:12 left in the game, the Lady Eagles of East Brewton held T.R. Miller scoreless the remainder of the game while leading scorer KeKe Floyd scored the final five points of the game to end the game on a 5-0 run and seal the first win of the season for the Lady Eagles and first win for first-year W.S. Neal head coach Buddy Powell.
“It is amazing,” Powell said of the win. “We have really been working hard and getting better. I knew after the first half we were like 4-for-15 from the free throw line and we should have been way ahead. They played well, but there at the end they had a couple of kids foul out and then when we moved KeKe to guard, she was able to get some steals and that put us over the top. We were able to make some free throws to put it away. This is my 31st year and that is the best win I have ever had. I don’t know. It was just awesome. I am just really proud of the girls.”
T.R. Miller led W.S. Neal 6-4 after one quarter and 13-12 at the half. In the third quarter, T.R. Miller outscored W.S. Neal to take a 22-20 lead into the fourth quarter. From there, W.S. Neal outscored T.R. Miller 9-3 in the fourth to get the win by four points.
“We came out and we played,” T.R. Miller Lady Tiger head coach Ron Jackson said. “I have been trying to move some of our players around and get some of my bigger players in the game. I had Akilah (Brazile) in the game and it slipped up on me that she had four fouls. I thought she had two and she had four. And then I got out of the game and put her back in and she fouled out. I think if she had not fouled out we would be talking about a win instead of a loss. Most of that is my fault. I let that slip.”
Jackson said that forced him to go to his bench play.
“Then we don’t have any depth on the bench,” he said. “Once we go to the bench, it is a done deal. We are young and we are inexperienced. We are learning the game and as the season goes on we are going to get better. We didn’t win tonight. I think Neal played a little harder than we did and wanted it a little more than we did. Then I had my only ball handler foul out of the ballgame and it was over then. I don’t have anybody else that can handle the ball. I need one more guard, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve. We are going to try some more things and put together some stuff. It is not over with yet.”
KeKe Floyd led W.S. Neal in the win with 10 points and eight steals. Mariah Davis and Jasmine Crook followed with seven points each. Crook had five rebounds in the win. Khadjiah Barton added three points and Taylor Burns had two.
For T.R. Miller, Mekiah Williams had 15 points, Star Drakeford had six points, and Steely Ruzic had four points.
T.R. Miller was 5-for-11 from the free throw line while W.S. Neal was 8-for-26.

TRM varsity 57, WSN 41
In a game that saw 63 free throws attempted, T.R. Miller’s varsity boys picked up their second straight while W.S. Neal suffered their fourth straight loss Friday night in Brewton as the Tigers roared to a 57-41 win.
In the game Friday, W.S. Neal jumped out to an early 14-12 lead over the Tigers after one quarter of play. From there it was basically all T.R. Miller as they outscored W.S. Neal 14-9 in the second quarter to lead 26-23 at the half.
In the third quarter, the Tigers held a 12-6 advantage to grab a 38-29 lead heading into the fourth quarter. In the fourth, T.R. Miller outscored W.S. Neal 19-12 to get the win by 16 points.
The Tigers were 19-for-37 from the free throw line while W.S. Neal was 10-for-26.
“I thought we played hard,” Tiger head coach Juan Johnson said. “Overall the effort was tremendous on the defensive end. We basically held them to 40 points. When we go into a game we want to hold our opponents from 8 to 10 points a quarter or less. That doesn’t always happen as we gave up 12 in the first quarter. We harp on that defense to win some games for us and down the stretch we were able to hit a few more free throws than they did. By no means were we perfect. But the difference in the game came down to the free throw line. We will improve and we will see them in a few days and in the second half of the season and it will be that much more important hopefully.”
W.S. Neal head coach Anthony Hayes said he thought the first half was pretty competitive.
“The difference from me was their guard play,” Hayes said. “I thought they were a little bit more seasoned and they have a little more upperclassmen when we had some underclassmen at the guard spot. Coach Juan had them playing with a lot of energy and I think they are improved. We have to improve. They were able to make a lot of free throws where we were not. I feel the better team won tonight. We are going to continue to work and to compete every night.”
T.R. Miller had nine players score in the win while W.S. Neal had eight.
Leading the way for the Tigers was Chardian Johnson’s 15 points. Caden Lodge added 11 points while Trae Walker had eight points. Kieon Smith chipped in seven points and Dominique Jackson had five. Kellyn Winn and Jalen Jones both had four points each. Shawn Tolbert added two points and Trin Miller had one.
For W.S. Neal, D.J. Hodges led with nine points and TyShawn Davis had eight. TyAnthony Alexander chipped in six points, Antwan Jones had five, Trevor Burns and Mike Williams both had four points each, Dalton Shell had three points and Malcolm Hawthorne had two points in the loss.