The Dawson County Lady Tigers picked up a second place finish in the Turkey Classic Basketball Tournament held at Hebron Christian High School in Dacula last week.
Head Coach Steve Sweat’s team picked up an opening round win against Mt. Pisgah, 52-27, before losing the championship game to host Hebron, 44-42.
In the opening game, Dawson jumped out to an 11-2 first quarter lead and continued the dominance on offense to lead 25-9 at halftime.
The Lady Tigers offense didn’t let down in the final two quarters as the team outscored Mt. Pisgah, 27-18, to come away with the 25-point victory.
“It feels great to get win number one for this season,” Sweat said.
“I hope this is just the beginning of a lot of wins for this team.”
Morgan Huber, junior, led all Lady Tigers with 12 points in the game. Huber also was a force on the boards. She pulled down five rebounds.
Carly Gilreath also had a fine game offensively. She scored 11 points in the win. Gilreath was followed in scoring by Hannah Porter and Allie Costley with six points each.
Jessi Phillips, Kacie Bearden and Kimberly Wallace each had four points. Natalie Parker added three points and four rebounds and Kristi Hyams scored two points to round out the scoring for Dawson County.
In the championship game, Dawson held a slim 23-19 lead at halftime against Hebron.
The third quarter was the downfall for Dawson, as the Lady Tigers managed only four points while Hebron scored 18. The Lady Lions jumped out to a 37-27 advantage after three quarters of play.
Despite a strong defensive effort in the fourth quarter that limited Hebron (2-2) to only seven points, the Lady Tigers managed only 13 points in the quarter to fall with the two point loss.
“We took a first half lead but just couldn’t hold on,” Sweat said. “The third quarter was not our best quarter of the night. Hebron took the lead and we never could get back in front on the scoreboard.”
Kimberly Wallace led all Lady Tigers in scoring with 10 points.
Carly Gilreath added nine points, followed by Huber with eight, Natalie Parker and Allie Costley had four points each, Morgan Bennett and Jessi Phillips added three points each, and Kenna Seitz had one point.
Costley and Parker had a big night rebounding. The pair pulled down 10 and 6 rebounds respectively.
Dawson is currently 1-2 on the season overall.
The Lady Tigers will play this Friday against Gilmer County, at home, beginning at 6 p.m. On Dec. 7, the team will travel to Lambert High School for a 6 p.m. start against the Lady Longhorns.