By Angie Ledbetter

The Lady Tigers traveled to Columbus Friday and gave the Lady Falcons a shocker when they defeated them 60-45 in a district game. It was a rematch from January 16 but the Lady Tigers fell in a close game that night 45-44 to the Lady Falcons.

The Tigers seemed to have fixed a big problem for them that had affected the outcome of the last few ball games when they made their free throws. According to Head Coach Ralph Stallings, his team shot the ball extremely well.

“Everybody seemed to step up every time the Lady Falcons got fouled. That was the difference when they started pressing and we were able to get a couple of fast break layups off the press. It was a good win for us.”

“It was a big win for the team,” said Stallings. “We had a pretty good first quarter but then foul trouble hit us. For most of the ballgame I had two starters, Chasity Kearney and Essie Thomas, sitting on the bench because of foul trouble. We changed up our approach a little bit and it was a one point ballgame at the half, 24-23. We came out and still had a weak third quarter but neither one of us could score. We finally had the opportunity and took a gamble by putting my starters back in the game. I brought a change in at the point guard position and put my little freshman, Christa Brown in the game. We scored 32 points in the fourth quarter. The Lady Falcons couldn’t score and we made a big run. They started fouling at the end and the free throw line really stood up solid for us.  We made a lot of free throws in the fourth quarter. Vetorra Cole was 8 of 9 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter.”

Scoring for the Lady Tigers were Vetorra Cole with 20, Chasity Kearney 13, Skylar Barnes 11, Essie Thomas 10, Stalisha Draper, 4 and Christa Brown, 2.

In the division, the Lady Tigers are tied in first with Tupelo with a 3-2 record. Tupelo and the Lady Tigers each have one division game left to play, both against Starkville. Tupelo will play Starkville tonight and the Lady Tigers will host them Friday night.

“I’m thinking right now that we’re going to go in seeded No. 2. If you have identical records, which we could possibly have with Tupelo, they would go ahead in the competition even though they beat us and we beat them. They beat us by a couple more points than we beat them. Tupelo would get the tie breaker and go in seeded No. 1. Starkville is sitting there with a 3-2 record so it could very easily change tonight in Tupelo or it could change with us Friday night here. All four teams in our division are pretty even. Usually the teams are pretty strong at home but right now they’re all evenly matched. I don’t know that it’s going to be an advantage to be playing this one or that one. This week will tell the tale. We’re just looking forward to the division tournament and play whoever.”

The Lady Tigers will travel to Lake Cormorant tonight and be home to host Starkville Friday at 6 p.m.