The season is over for the Dawson County Lady Tigers basketball team.

Head Coach Steve Sweat’s varsity Lady Tiger basketball team played its first game of the Region 8-AA tournament Monday at Elbert County High School against Hart County High School.

Despite leading for the majority of the game, the Lady Tigers fell to Hart County 57-55.

The Lady Tigers finished the regular season with an exciting overtime win, 69-64, over Banks County last Friday night. It was senior night for the Lady Tigers and Sweat said an emotional goodbye to Jessi Phillips, Morgan Bennett and Natalie Parker.

“These girls have been with me since I came back to Dawson County,” Sweat said. “I will miss them for all their hard work and dedication to our program.”

Dawson jumped on Banks early to take a commanding 16-7 first quarter lead.

Both teams traded baskets in the second quarter, but the Lady Tigers held a 10-point lead, 33-23, at the half.

The Lady Leopards turned up the defense in the third quarter and outscored Dawson 13-7 to trim the Lady Tiger lead to 40-36.

Both teams put on an offensive showcase in the final quarter. Banks outscored the Lady Tigers 23-19 to tie the game at 58-58 and send the game into overtime.

Clutch free throw shooting by Natalie Parker, 7-of-8, allowed Dawson to clinch its final regular season game. Parker finished the game with 12 points and 8 rebounds in her last game at the Ford E. Phillips Center.

The Lady Tigers outscored Banks 10-5 in the overtime period.

“Our kids continued to fight throughout and came out on the good end,” Sweat said. “It was a sweet win for our seniors.”

Kenna Seitz and Carly Gilreath led the Lady Tigers in scoring with 14 points each. Allie Costley scored 9 points and grabbed 6 rebounds. Morgan Huber and Kimberly Wallace each contributed 7 points in the win. Morgan Bennett had 6 points, both of them 3-pointers.

Dawson finished the regular season at 11-12 and 2-8 in region play.

On Feb. 8, the Lady Tigers traveled to Blairsville to take on a very tough Union County Lady Panther team.

Dawson lost the game, 64-42, despite the 14 points scored by point guard Carly Gilreath.

The Lady Panthers used their pressure defense to open up a commanding 31-21 lead at halftime.

Union County stormed out of the dressing room and extended its lead to 47-28 after three quarters and never looked back to take the 22 point win.

Also scoring for Dawson were: Parker-6 points, Seitz-6 points, Huber-5 points, Costley-5 points, Phillips-3 points and Hannah Porter-3 points.