By By BRUCE HIXON Sports Editor
As a coach, T.R. Miller Lady Tigers coach Ron Jackson saw plenty of areas where his team needs to perform better if it wants to continue to advance down the postseason road. Then again, that aspect of the job goes with the territory.
While it could have been easy to dwell on the negatives, Jackson was not blind to the positives his team had.
The victory Jackson referred to was Thursday's 47-27 triumph over the Aliceville Lady
Yellow Jackets in a Class 3A sub-regional game held at Brewton.
T.R. Miller (28-1) overcame a sluggish offensive start, 21 turnovers, nine missed free throws and some foul trouble en route to a Sweet 16 and regional berth.
The main source to T.R. Miller's victory was defense. Aliceville (11-10) made only seven field goals on the night and shot only 24 percent (seven-for-29) from the field.
See LADY TIGERS Page 8
otherwise had some struggles. Krystle Smith played tough defense."
Both teams had their share of problems getting untracked, but for different reasons.
Aliceville's problems could be attributed to eight first quarter turnovers. T.R. Miller's problems came from the field where it was just three-for-12 in the opening frame.
With more than six minutes off the clock, both teams had registered just four points. McCorvey accounted for all four of the Lady Tigers markers, while Aliceville got a field goal from Beatrice Boykins and Jasmine Gates.
A free throw by McCorvey snapped that deadlock and the Lady Tigers would never relinquish that lead. McCorvey then came up with a steal that led to a bucket by Krystle Smith, but Jennifer Prowell scored on an offensive rebound at the first quarter buzzer that brought the Lady Yellow Jackets within 7-6.
Perhaps the key sequence of the game came two minutes into the second quarter. With T.R. Miller up 12-8, Boykins missed an uncontested layup after a steal. Moments later Lane buried a three-pointer on the other end. Instead of being up just 12-10, T.R. Miller's lead had grown to 15-8.
Sanford and McCorvey followed with field goals and assists to each other on those hoops. Just like that the Lady Tigers' advantage had grown to 19-8.
A three-point play by Sanford with two minutes left in the second quarter gave T.R. Miller a 22-9 lead, its biggest cushion of the first half.
Aliceville, which trailed 22-11 at halftime, briefly cut that deficit to single digits early in the third quarter when a bucket by Ashley Williams made it 22-13. That would be as close as the Lady Yellow Jackets would get.
Two buckets and a free throw by Sanford and a field goal by McCorvey put the lead up to 29-15 by midway through the third quarter.
Up 31-20 late in the third quarter, T.R. Miller applied the knockout blow. McCorvey ended the third quarter and started the fourth quarter with a field goal. A steal and layup by Sanford swelled the T.R. Miller advantage up to 37-20.
The Lady Tigers were able to close things out with four free throws by McCorvey and two charity tosses by Peterson plus field goals by Lane and Smith.
The Lady Tigers will take on Leeds (17-8) Thursday at 9 a.m. in the Southwest Regional semifinal round to be held at the University of South Alabama in Mobile. Leeds advanced with a 66-35 win over Northside. Clarke County (23-6) will meet Midfield (25-7) in the other semifinal.
The two winners will return Saturday at 12:20 p.m. for the championship.
At T.R. Miller
Aliceville 6 5 9 7 – 27
T.R. Miller 7 15 11 14 – 47
ALICEVILLE (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Boykins 2-0-8-12; Woods 1-0-2-4; Gates 2-0-0-4; A. Conner 1-0-0-2; M. Conner 0-0-2-2; Williams 1-0-0-2; Minor 0-0-1-1 (Totals: 7-0-13-27)
T.R. MILLER (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) McCorvey 8-0-5-21; Sanford 4-0-4-12; Lane 1-2-0-8; Smith 2-0-0-4; Peterson 0-0-2-2 (Totals: 15-2-11-47)