By Kevin Eckleberry

Sports Editor

They weren’t about to let this one get away.

So many times this season, the Troup Tigers had a victory in their grasp, only to see it slip away late.

Tuesday’s game looked like it could be headed the same way, with Kendrick scoring six straight points in the fourth quarter to build a four-point lead.

But on this night, the Tigers were at their best as the clock drew closer to zero.

The Tigers put together a 13-0 run in the final two minutes to beat Kendrick 64-55 on senior night.

One of those seniors, Marcus Williams, led the Tigers with 25 points.

“We had to win,” Williams said. “We did our jobs and came through at the end.”

In the girls’ game, Troup hung tough with defending state-champion Kendrick before losing 50-43.

Troup’s boys (8-13 overall) are 4-7 in Region 2-AAA, and most of the losses in region play have been close.

Outside of a 20-point loss to Shaw, every one of Troup’s region losses was by single digits.

“We were headed in the same direction. And then we got a little confidence and turned it around and ,” Troup coach Thermond Billingslea said.

Billingslea was especially pleased to see his team get a win on the home court.

“Every home game we played, we should have won. But we lost most of them,” he said. “That’s the way it goes.”

Kendrick had a 53-51 lead when the game turned in Troup’s favor.

The Tigers took the lead for good when Kendrick Ward was fouled while scoring, and he made the free throw to give his team a 56-53 lead with 1:44 remaining.

It remained a three-point game until Williams made a pair of free throws with 50 seconds left, and Troup was up 58-53.

Moments later, senior Kelvin Lyles dove on the floor to save the ball, and he was able to get a pass to Eric Bridges, whose layup with 30 seconds left put the Tigers ahead 60-53.

Troup added four more points before Kendrick made a meaningless layup as time expired.

In the girls’ game, the Lady Tigers hung tough with Kendrick the whole game, but they were unable to pull out a win in their regular-season home finale.

The Lady Cherokees built a double-digit lead moments into the fourth quarter, and they went into a stall offense after that.

“They spread it out as soon as they got the lead,” Troup head coach Caroline Sellers said. “You have to take that as a compliment. But they still wanted to win on senior night.”

The Lady Tigers were down by as many as 13 points in the final quarter, but they fought back to get within seven at the final buzzer.

Post players Shamiya Brooks and Pascale West led Troup with 17 and 16 points, respectively.

“We wanted to feed the post, and that’s what we did,” Sellers said.

Troup’s teams finish the regular season at LaGrange on Friday.