By By ZACH BROOKS
Sports Writer
The Escambia County Lady Blue Devils Varsity basketball team concluded the 2001 County Tournament Saturday night with a hard-fought 67-45 loss to the T.R. Miller Tigers.
The Lady Devils had been riding a five game winning streak, after starting out 0-5, before they ran into a tenacious T.R. Miller team.
The last time these two teams played was on Nov. 27, in Atmore. T.R. Miller blew out the Lady Devils by 40 points, 60-20.
The win by T.R. Miller gave them the tournament championship for the 2001 season. The loss by the Lady Devils dropped to second place, with Flomaton and W.S. Neal coming in third and fourth in the tournament.
The game was never close, as the Lady Tigers jumped out to a 16-4 lead after the first quarter and never looked back.
After only scoring four points in first quarter, the Lady Devils exploded in the second quarter with 15 points to minimize T.R. Miller's lead by two, to 31-21 at half-time.
The Blue Devils were outscored the rest of the game by the Lady Tigers. The Tigers got a 14-point performance in the third quarter, to only 11points by the Lady Devils, to gain a 17-point lead, 47-30, heading into the final period.
If the Devils had dreams of a fourth-quarter comeback, they were quickly squashed by a tremendous 20-point outburst in the final period.
The Lady Devils went on a hot streak themselves, by scoring 15 points for the quarter, but it was not enough to win.
Janet Wilson lead the Blue Devils in scoring with 14 points. Marquita Jones followed with 10 points for the Blue Devils. Ashley Kidd and Hannah Rigsby also had nine and eight points respectively, in the loss.
Janet Wilson, Marquita Jones, and Hannah Rigsby also made the All-Tournament team.
White said his team is making progress in working out the bugs.
Ashley Samuel lead the T.R. Miller Lady Tigers in points with 15. Brooke Defran followed with 10 points. Brittnee Maloyd followed with nine points in the win.
Monday morning, White was hoping Santa would make a big delivery during his rounds on Christmas Eve.