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.
"In my opinion, T.R. Miller is one of the best teams we will play this year," Escambia County Head Coach Theodore White said. "We played them alot better this time, than the last time we played them."
The last time these two teams played was on November 27th, 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.
"When you start out 0-5 and then win five straight, plus almost pull out the County Tournament, you it is a great achievement," Coach White said.
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.
"We thought we could comeback in the last period," Coach White said. " But, it seemed like they could not miss."
The Lady Devils went on a hot streak themselves, by scoring 15 points for the quarter, but it was not enough to win.
" I think we should be very proud of ourselves," Coach White said. "T.R. Miller is a very good team, and we stood in there and scored the most points they have allowed all year."
Janet Wilson lead the Blue Devils in scoring with 14 points. Marquita Jones followed with ten 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.
"I was real impressed with the way my girls played,"Coach White said."Especially Janet, Marquita, and Hannah, they deserved to make the All-Tournament team.
"I think we are coming around,"Coach White said."I think we are going to progress nicely in the second half of the season and make some noise in the area tournament at the end of the year."
Ashley Samevl 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.
"If I had to make a Christmas wish for Christmas this year it would be; that both boys and girls varsity basketball teams end up at the Mitchell Center in South Alabama to be playing in the Regional Championship.