The Tigers found themselves up by four late in Friday’s game at Alexander when the Cougars converted a four-point play to tie it, and they went on to win 77-71 in overtime.
No such turn of events occurred on Saturday as the Tigers pulled away from Heard County in the fourth quarter, holding the Braves to just two points over the final eight minutes.
“We played well defensively,” Troup head coach Thermond Billingslea said. “I know we didn’t substitute a lot, but I thought our conditioning was good.”
The Tigers were good defensively all night, but especially late.
“I thought we stepped it up a little bit on defense in the fourth quarter,” Billingslea said.
The game was close early, with Heard taking a 12-10 lead after the first quarter.
The Tigers came back to score 16 points in the second quarter to take a 26-23 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Troup led 37-34 after three quarters, although the Tigers were up by as many as nine points in the period before the Braves chipped away at the lead to bring it back to three.
Two things became evident in the fourth quarter.
Troup’s defense stepped up and became very physical, and Heard County seemed to run out of gas.
The combination of both was all the Tigers needed to pull away, putting a 14-point difference between the two teams to win.
Lakeithin Buckner had 13 points to lead Troup, Daryl Dunlap scored 11 points, and Demetrious Trammell finished with eight points.
Troup will be on the road Tuesday at Sandy Creek in its next region game.
Post a Comment
