Free throws sink Lady Tigers
by Keith Ledbetter
Despite coming back from a first quarter 12-4 deficit in the first, Red Bay’s Lady Tigers could not do anything about the numerous unwarranted foul calls in the final minute of the Red Bay and New Site, Miss. game last Friday.
The Lady Royals sunk eight free throws in the final 45 seconds to take a 45-38 win over Red Bay.
“New Site did a good job tonight,” Lady Tiger head coach Donnie Roberts said following the game.
“Coach Byron Sparks ran a Triangle-and-Two defense and we haven’t seen one of those.
“It worked for them and got us a little off and killed our offense.
“He guarded Darby and Allie man-to-man and zoned the other three. We just made too many mistakes and the things we worked on in practice-we just didn’t execute,” Robert added.
The Lady Tigers missed several opportunities to add points in the first and only scored on a basket by Katie Burks and free throws by Holly Hardin.
Red Bay held New Site scoreless for the first six minutes of the second quarter while the offense added six points from Morgan Pierce and Hardin.
Allie Kennedy tied the game at 12 all near the two-minute mark of the second, but the Royals added five more to lead the Lady Tigers 17-14 at the half.
Burks and Kennedy sunk a three pointer each to hold New Site’s lead to 23-20 near the end of the third quarter.
Hope Cook and Pierce connected on three pointers and Darby Madden added a two point shot to leave Red Bay trailing by only two points, 30-28 midway through the fourth.
New Site slowly pulled away from Red Bay by adding another 15 points while the Tigers added 10 in the final minutes.
“When you’ve got the lead, you can make the other team play like you want to play. We never got the lead tonight.
“If we had ever got up on them, we could have done some things differently,” Roberts said.
Allie Kennedy scored nine, Darby Madden had five, Hope Cook scored three, Morgan Pierce scored nine, Katie Burks added eight, and Holly Hardin scored four.
Red Bay will host Belmont this Friday, Dec. 19, and Tremont on Dec. 22.
