After a rough season, the Commerce Lady Tigers will enter the region tournament.
The Lady Tigers ended the regular season with two losses that left the team 5-11 in region play and 6-16 overall. The record secured the seventh seed in the region tournament.
The first round for Commerce was against number two seed Social Circle — a team that beat Commerce in both regular season games — on Tuesday. Results were unavailable at press time. See www.mainstreetnewssports.com for updates.
“Social beat us up pretty good in both games we played them,” said coach Eddie McCurley. “It goes back to if we can take care of the basketball and not have as many unforced turnovers, then we get more opportunities to score… for us this is key.”
McCurley felt good about the Lady Tigers as they entered the tournament.
“There is no pressure on us. The only pressure we have is what we place on ourselves,” McCurley said. “All the pressure should be on Social Circle because they are expected to win. We hope to keep the game close and put the pressure squarely back on them. We have to play our best game. Our worst enemy is ourselves.”
Last week the Lady Tigers ended the regular season on the short end of a seven-game streak.
Commerce started slowly against region-leading Towns County and fell 63-21.
McCurley said the Lady Tigers were overmatched and had trouble finding the basket in the first half. At the end of the half, Towns led 32-9. Commerce attempted to cut Towns County’s lead in the third, but was held to seven
points as the Lady Indians scored 21 points and put the game away.
Jessie Flint led Commerce with eight, followed by Skylar Beasley scoring five, Drea Mathis added three, Logan Brown and Allie Morgan scored two apiece and Lauren Jones added one point.
Friday night was an emotional evening for the Lady Tigers as the final game of the regular season was also Senior Night and marked the end of an era in the current CHS gymnasium. The gym is slated to be demolished this spring to make room for the new high school. A new basketball facility will be constructed alongside the tennis courts after the completion of the new high school. Next year the basketball season will be played in what will become the practice gym.
The Lady Tigers ended the season against Athens Christian on a 44-29 loss.
“Athens Christian was a better match-up for us, but we still got off to a poor start,” said McCurley.
Athens Christian led 18-11 at the half after blanking the Lady Tigers in the first quarter. McCurley said there were chances in the third period for Commerce to tighten up the game, but unforced turnovers helped Athens Christian to surge ahead and hold the Lady Tigers off.
Flint led the scoring with 10. Shekia Moon and Jones added five apiece followed by Morgan with four, Brown and Mathis with two each and Beasley with point one.
