Playing a night early, as the threat of more winter weather loomed, the DCHS Tigers and Lady Tigers played host to the Smith County Owls and Lady Owls Thursday night. The Lady Tigers fought hard through all four and pulled off a win, while the Tigers were defeated in the fourth quarter by the Owls.
DeKalb County Lady Tigers 38
Smith County Lady Owls 32
The Lady Tigers were determined not to be bested by the Lady Owls, but were trailing 27-24 with a little over six minutes left in the contest.
DeKalb’s tenacious defense was tested in all four quarters, as Smith County had a height advantage with tall center Lacey Mitchell and forward Makenna Moore, both of whom pulled down a decent amount of boards for the Lady Owls - which is usually the Lady Tiger’s forte.
Lady Tiger Joni Robinson came on strong in the fourth quarter from outside the arc, however, quickly regaining the lead for DeKalb, 30-29, with a 4:19 left on the clock. You could see the Lady Owls start to struggle as they missed several 1-1 attempts to even things up.
DeKalb did much better from the charity stripe, with Lydia Brown, Robinson and Madison Parsley adding points from the line for a 34-30 score with 36 seconds remaining.
Parsley went on to hit both sides of a 1-1 plus another free throw and Brown added one more with seven seconds left in the contest to hang on for the win.
Robinson was the game’s top scorer with 14 points in the contest followed by Emme Colwell and Parsley each with seven points. Brown was good for four points and Megan Cantrell and Mya Ruch scored three points each to round out the Lady Tiger scoring.
Moore topped Smith County’s scoring with eight points.
Smith County Owls 82
DeKalb County Tigers 66
Down just one point at the break, 37-36, it was either team’s game to win in the second half.
Unfortunately, it was the Owls who seemed to find fifth gear in the fourth quarter as they took a six-point lead after the third and turned it into a 16-point victory at the buzzer.
Smith County’s boisterous forward Jalylon Shopporson put a hurting on the Tigers as he scored a game-high 29 points against DeKalb in the contest, scoring eight points from accurate free throws – seven in the fourth quarter as DeKalb tried to regain possession.
Colter Norris led the Tigers’ tally with 16 total points. Trey Jones was just behind with 14 and Tanner Poss scored 11 points in the game.
The Tiger’s offense suffered in the fourth, only putting up six points with three of those from the free-throw line.
Rounding out the total tally was Nathan Atkins with nine points; Marshall Evins eight; Austin Johnson six; and Dallas Cook scored two points.
