Bethany Cook drives past a defender as she looks for daylight against the Belmont defense. Cook and the Lady Tigers lost 55-44 to the Cardinals.

by Keith Ledbetter for the FCT

Red Bay’s game plan was to get out front and slow down the offense against Belmont last Friday. Turnovers by the Lady Tigers helped step up Belmont’s offense and allowed them to pick-up a 55-44 win against Red Bay.

The Lady Tigers trailed by only one, 7-6 at the end of the first, but the Lady Cardinals scored 20 points in the second to take a 27-18 lead at halftime.

“We had a real good game plan,” said Tiger head coach Donnie Roberts.

“The first half we were in great shape, but when we tried to slow down on offense we made a couple of bad passes right before the half and that got us into trouble.”

“They just killed us in the third quarter. We made a decent comeback effort in the fourth, but you just have to play all four quarters,” Roberts added.

Red Bay’s Allie Kennedy, Darby Madden, and Hope Cook tossed in baskets in the first for Red Bay.

Madden connected on a three from the outside to give the Lady Tigers a 9-7 advantage.

Belmont’s Morgan Stephens hit back-to-back three pointers to give Belmont the final lead at 17-11 midway through the second quarter.

Red Bay Kennedy’s cut it back to two points, 18-16, on a three pointer from the top just seconds later.

The Lady Cardinals scored nine points in the final minutes of the half to take a nine point lead.

Belmont continued to build, scoring 14 points in the third ug, while holding Red Bay to seven.

Allie Kennedy led Red Bay with 20 points, Darby Madden, Hope Cook, and Katie burks scored eight each.

“We had turnovers in the first half and we got out rebounded. That made the difference in the game,” added Roberts.

Red Bay 54 Belgreen 31

Last Thursday Red Bay led Belgreen at the end of the first quarter, 11-9, and held  on to a 24-13 lead at halftime.

The Lady Tigers outscored the Lady Bulldogs 16-10  in the third and 14-8 in the fourth.

Laken Bragwell led Belgreen with 18 points, Allyson Bragwell scored four, Jasmine Martin had five, and Hannah Taylor scored three.

Allie Kennedy led Red Bay with 29 points, Darby Madden had 13, Holly Hardin scored four, Hannah McKinney, Jordyn McKinney, and Katie burks scored three each.

After a four game week this past week, Red Bay will again face four opponents this coming week.

This past Monday the Tigers played Hamilton, on Tuesday they hosted Tharptown, on Thursday they play at Belgreen, and on Saturday they will travel to Pontotoc (Ms) to play Booneville.

“We have our work cut out for us this week,” Roberts said.

The AHSAA 2A Area 15 tournaments will be hosted by Red Bay and according to Roberts, they start playing for keeps next week as area tournaments start on Monday, Feb. 2 against Sulligent and Phil Campbell. Red Bay will play in the finals on Thursday night, Feb. 5.