by Bart Moss for the FCT

The Red Bay Tigers pulled away in the fourth quarter against the Belgreen Bulldogs to take the 7th-8th grade junior high girls Franklin County Championship by a score of 32-27.

“I’m extremely proud of our girls,” said Red Bay coach Jeff Madden.  “We played really good defense and made the necessary adjustments to get the win.

“We have really stressed hard work and focusing on fundamentals.  That has helped us gain confidence through the season and it paid off for us this morning.  Belgreen has a really good team.  We’ve had trouble with them this season.  It was a really competitive effort.”

Shaking off the nerves of playing for a championship, they started off slow.  Belgreen led Red Bay 4-3 at the end of the first quarter.  The scoring picked up in the second quarter with Belgreen extending their lead slightly to 13-11 at the half.  Red Bay tied the game up at the end of the third quarter at 15-15.  Red Bay pulled away in the fourth quarter outscoring Belgreen 17-12 to take the win.

“We got in some foul trouble early that hurt,” said Belgreen coach Bridgett Rickard. “I’m really proud of the way our girls played.  They are hard workers and love the game of basketball.  We are really looking forward to watching them grow.”

Sarah Williams led Red Bay with 16 points.  Others scoring for the Tigers were Destiny Deaton (5), Amber Kelton (4), Cailyn Leath (3), Kaylee Markham (3), and Bailey Bolton (1).

Autumn Bragwell and Krista Sikes led Belgreen with five points each.  Others scorers for the Bulldogs were Katie Dempsey (4), Kayla Williams (4), Ansley Tate (4), Emmie Scott (3), Gracie Dempsey (2).