By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

It looked like it was going to be business as usual.

The Troup Lady Tigers have been riding high of late, and they brought a four-game winning streak into Saturday afternoon’s game against a Chapel Hill team that was winless in Region 5-AAAA.

Through three quarters, it looked like the Lady Tigers were going to cruise to their fifth straight win.

Trailing by 10 points, though, Chapel Hill came to life, and it used a 23-point fourth quarter to earn a come-from-behind, 42-41 win over Troup.

It was a tough loss for the Lady Tigers (12-6 overall), but they’re still in good shape in Region 5-AAAA with a 5-2 record.

Troup is in second place, two games behind Sandy Creek.

Troup head coach Carla Thornton’s message to the players after the game was “you’re still playing for second place right now, and still a possibility of first place. I hate that we lost to the last-place team, but the position is still the same.”

The fourth quarter was the difference, with Chapel Hill scoring 23 points after managing just 19 points through the first three quarters.

“Obviously, the effort on defense is not how we play defense,” Thornton said. “We gave up too many points in the fourth quarter. It was missed assignments.”

After Chapel Hill got within three, Jada Green’s 3-pointer pushed the lead back to six with 2:46 to play.

It was a two-point game when Gilbert made two free throws with 48 seconds to play, and Troup’s lead was 41-37.

Chapel Hill answered with five straight points to seize the lead, and Troup missed a shot at the buzzer that would have won the game.

Gilbert led Troup with 24 points, and she had nine of those points in the fourth quarter.

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