By BY BRUCE HIXON – SPORTS EDITOR
They may not be clicking on all cylinders yet on offense, but there has been nothing wrong with the defense of the Brewton Middle School Lady Tigers basketball team through their first two games.
Brewton held its second straight opponent to single digits Thursday, as it downed the visiting Ernest Ward Lady Eagles 17-9.
The Lady Tigers have surrendered just 12 points and only three field goals in their two games.
The Lady Tigers (2-0) overcame a sluggish offensive start that saw them fail to score for the game's first eight minutes. During that time Ernest Ward managed to open up only a 2-0 lead, which came on a bucket by Tabitha Steige in the final minute of the first quarter.
Once Brewton was finally able to break the scoreless drought on a game-tying bucket by Courtney Jones two minutes into the second quarter, the Lady Tigers went on a 15-0 run that did not end until the fourth quarter was two minutes old.
Leah Brundidge accounted for one-third of that run with a pair of buckets and a free throw, while Adrian Gibbs also contributed a pair of hoops during the surge.
While the Lady Tigers remained undefeated, the Brewton Tigers made a strong recovery from a 17-point loss to W.S. Neal in the season opener with a 38-26 win over Ernest Ward.
The Tigers (1-1) accounted for that margin of victory in the opening quarter when they blanked the Eagles 12-0. Kirk Moore had three buckets and Jaren Jackson added two more, as they accounted for 10 of the 12 points.
Ernest Ward did not pick up its first point until the second quarter was 90 seconds old and its first field goal until 30 seconds later.
That did little to slow down the Tigers, as two buckets by Jackson and one by Kellyn Winn along with a charity toss by Anthony Herbert extended Brewton's lead to 19-3.
The Tigers, who led 19-6 at halftime and 31-11 through three quarters, had as much as a 24-point lead of 38-14 after a field goal by Chris Mallard with 2:40 left in the game.
The Brewton teams will be off until Nov. 28 when they host Flomaton. Play starts with the girls game at 4 p.m. Those games will be played at T.R. Miller High School.
Girls
Ernest Ward 2 0 0 7 – 9
Brewton 0 7 8 2 – 17
BREWTON- Brundidge 7, Jones 5, Gibbs 3, Guthrie 2
Ernest Ward 0 6 5 15 - 26
Brewton 12 7 12 7 – 38
BREWTON- Moore 14, J. Jackson 8, Herbert 7, K. Jackson 5, Winn 2, Mallard 2