By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

The Troup Lady Tigers shrugged off a halftime deficit to beat LaGrange 34-30 in a summer scrimmage.

Both teams are in the midst of their summer schedules, and they locked horns in LaGrange High’s gym on Wednesday afternoon.

LaGrange had the halftime lead, but Troup went on a run in the second half to build a seven-point lead before hanging on for the four-point win.

While happy to see her team prevail, Troup head coach Carla Thornton felt LaGrange was the hungrier team.

“They played like they wanted it more than we did, and that’s what I was telling my girls,” Thornton said. “We were more talented so we were able to win, but they outhustled y’all today.”

Thornton was glad to see her players turn up the intensity in the second half and get the win.

“I thought we started off real sluggish,” Thornton said. “It’s the summertime. At the end of the day, they still wanted bragging rights.”

LaGrange head coach Stephen Tuck was happy to set up a game against his team’s top rival.

“I know when I played, a lot of times you didn’t want to see a rival high school because it was really, really heated,” Tuck said. “But now a days, a lot of these girls are friends. They’re like sisters. So why do we have other teams come in when we’ve got a really talented team that we can get some good work against.”

While his team wasn’t able to get the win, Tuck liked the effort he saw from the players.

“It’s good because they do want to beat them,” Tuck said. “So you get the intensity up, and you get really good work in the summertime.”

The game was the continuation of a busy summer for both teams as they prepare for what they hope will be a successful 2019-2020 season.

Troup went 17-9 last season and finished second in Region 5-AAAA before losing to Oconee County in the opening round of the state tournament.

LaGrange went 11-15, and its season ended with a loss to Central-Carroll in the region tournament.

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