By By BRUCE HIXON – Sports Editor
They won by 35 points and their two superstars combined for 44.
Yet perhaps the item that brought the biggest smile from T.R. Miller Lady Tigers coach Ron Jackson in Saturday's 78-43 road win at Hillcrest was the performance of his bench.
Up just 6-5 halfway through the first quarter, T.R. Miller (16-3) took control of Lady Jaguars with a 34-5 blitz over the next nine minutes.
More often than not Jasmine Sanford and Joy McCorvey were on the front end of the transition game. Sanford racked up a game high 25 points, while McCorvey added another 19 and moved to within 51 points of 2,000 for her career.
McCorvey had 11 of her points in the opening quarter including eight straight during a 10-0 run by T.R. Miller that took its lead from 6-5 to 16-5.
Sanford got the bulk of her points in the second period. After she had just two in the first period, Sanford erupted for 15 in the second quarter. The last of those points, a free throw, gave T.R. Miller a 47-16 halftime lead.
There were other contributors to the big first half lead. Keya Peterson nailed three three-pointers in the first half and Samantha Brown also connected from behind the arc.
McCorvey's last bucket of the game, which came off a steal by Sanford, gave T.R. Miller's its biggest lead of the third quarter at 64-26.
A rare four-point play by Brown 11 seconds into the fourth quarter knocked the lead above 40 points for the first time in the game, as the junior guard buried a three-pointer, was fouled on the play and hit the free throw.
The Lady Tigers' lead hit a game high bulge of 42 points twice in the fourth quarter, the last of which came when Catherine Green's two free throws made it 76-34 with just over four minutes left.
T.R. Miller's win improved its mark to 3-0 against teams that will make up next year's new Class 4A Area 1 field. The Lady Tigers had also previously
beaten W.S. Neal and Andalusia.
T.R. Miller, which hosted W.S. Neal in a Class 3A Area 1 matchup Tuesday, hosts Clarke County Friday in another key Area matchup.
At Hillcrest
T.R. Miller 21 26 18 13 – 78
Hillcrest 7 9 13 14 – 43
T.R. MILLER (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Sanford 10-0-5-25; McCorvey 8-0-3-19; Key. Peterson 0-3-0-9; Grice 2-0-4-8; Brown 0-2-1-7; Green 1-0-2-4; Williams 0-1-0-3; Kes. Peterson 1-0-0-2; Walker 0-0-1-1 (Totals: 22-6-16-78)
HILLCREST (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Ka. Thomas 6-1-5-20; Kw. Thomas 4-0-2-10; Maye 0-1-4-7; Ghee 1-0-1-3; Rudolph 1-0-0-2; Kiser 0-0-1-1 (Totals: 12-2-13-43)