Coach Thad Burgess' Dawson County High School varsity boys basketball team is continuing its winning ways.

The Tigers picked up two big wins recently.

On Dec. 20 the Tigers defeated visiting West Forsyth by a score of 44-29.

Then, on Dec. 27, the team won the opening round of the Battle of the States tournament in Towns County by outlasting Piedmont, Ala., 50-44.

With the two wins Dawson County is now perfect at 11-0.

Against West Forsyth the Tigers defense was strong once again.

Dawson County only allowed the Wolverines single digit scoring in three of the four quarters played.

Tyler Dominy had a good game for Burgess' team.

Dominy gave the Tigers an 8-5 lead when he rebounded a missed shot and slammed the ball home. The big crowd at the Ford E. Phillips center went crazy.

From that point the Tigers never trailed.

Dominy led Dawson County in scoring with 13 points. He also picked up his 500th rebound at the 7:12 mark of the second quarter.

"It was a good win to head into Christmas. We continue to play good defense and rebound well. I also thought we had balance in scoring and we shared the ball well," Burgess said.

Adding to the Dawson County offense were Gunnar Armstrong and Lucas Pain with nine points, Will Anglin added six points, Jonathan Sanderson had four and Terrell Dawson picked up two points.

Nick Stati led West with 13 points.

In the first round of the tournament at Towns County the Tigers started off slow and trailed, 35-25, at halftime against Piedmont.

According to Burgess, a stern halftime speech fired up his team in the second half and propelled them to go on a 20-0 run in the third quarter and take a, 45-35, lead.

Dawson's defense then came alive and gave up only a single bucket in the third quarter.

Gunnar Armstrong led all scorers with 12 points. He was followed by Dominy - nine points, Sanderson - seven points, Anglin - six points, Jackson Putnam - eight points and Camron Chester with eight points.

Piedmont's high scorers were Derek Thompson and Darnell Jackson with 10 points each.

"We came out poorly against Piedmont," Burgess said. "We gave up more points in the first half than we have given up all year. It was nice to see us respond after playing poorly the first half then responding like we did. We will have to play much better the next two nights to have a chance to win."

The Tigers played Hayesville, N.C. on Friday night for a chance to advance to the championship game. Hayesville won the Battle of the States tournament last season.

Scores were not available at press time.