The Dawson County High School varsity Lady Tigers' basketball team didn't miss a beat after being off for 10 days. Coach Steve Sweat's team made the long trip to Homer on Friday and defeated Banks County, 55-40.

Dawson County remains the No. 1-ranked team in Class AAA.

The Lady Tigers are currently 21-0 and 8-0 in Region 7-AAA play.

The team has four region games remaining Franklin County, yesterday (scores unavailable as of press time), Lumpkin County on Friday, Fannin County on Feb. 3 and West Hall on Feb. 6.

Since defeating West Hall on Jan. 13 by a convincing 73-47 score the Lady Tigers have been off.

It didn't appear as if the layoff hurt, as the Lady Tigers stormed out to a 22-10 first quarter lead behind the shooting of point guard Haley Burgess. Burgess scored 12 of her game-high 19 points in the quarter.

"Haley Burgess had a great game tonight, in spite of a little foul trouble, by leading us in scoring," Sweat said. "Haley did a nice job tonight by fulfilling her role as a point guard. She handled the ball well, played good defense, made some great passes and scored."

The game was billed as the battle between the top two teams in the Region.

In the second quarter, turnovers by the Lady Tigers allowed Banks County to cut the lead to seven points at halftime, 32-25.

Banks County (18-4; 6-3) stormed out of the dressing room after halftime. Coach Jerry King's squad tied the game at 32-32, which forced the Lady Tigers to call a timeout. After the timeout Dawson County went on an offensive run, 14-4, to take a 46-36 lead into the final quarter.

Over the last eight minutes, Dawson County outscored their opposition 9-4 to hold on for the 15-point win in a very hard environment in Homer.

Also scoring for the Lady Tigers were: Sheyenne Seabolt with 15 points and nine rebounds, Ashley Parker with a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds, Karlie Bearded added five points and nine rebounds and Jordan Moore contributed with three points.

"I thought we played some really good defense and had some good blocked shots down the stretch to seal the victory," Sweat said.

Dawson County played host to a dangerous Franklin County team yesterday. Franklin came into the contest with a 14-7 record and a 6-3 record in region play. Scores were unavailable at press time.

Friday, the Lady Tigers will travel to Dahlonega to face a struggling Lady Indian team.

Coach Matthew Youngblood's team is currently 2-20 and 0-9 in region play.

Tipoff for Friday's game will be at 7 p.m.