The Commerce Lady Tigers are off to their best start in several years, as they picked up back-to-back victories over Oglethorpe County to open up the 2010-11 campaign last week.
They’ll cross the river Friday to Jefferson where they’ll face the Lady Dragons.
The Lady Dragons come into the week off a 55-52 victory on Saturday against Mountain View. Jefferson is 3-2 so far, with earlier wins over Mountain View and Johnson.
Commerce would like to break a 12-game losing streak to the Lady Dragons dating back to Jan. 8, 2005. In their most recent meeting, on Jan. 29 of this year, Jefferson bested the Lady Tigers 46-24.
Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Oglethorpe Co.
The Lady Tigers started their season with a trip to Lexington.
Commerce took control early, moving to a 12-4 lead by the end of the first quarter. Outscoring the Lady Patriots 20-1 over the next eight minutes, the Tigers held a commanding 32-5 advantage at the half.
Commerce continued to dominate in the second half. The Tigers outscored Oglethorpe 15-3 to make it 47-11 at the end of the third quarter then coasted to the 52-14 victory.
“We did a real good job running the floor in transition and got some easy baskets,” said coach Eddie McCurley. “For such a young team, I thought we had a very good team effort.”
Jaz Grier led the offense with 16 points. Vanessa Chandler and Erica Greene scored seven apiece, Lily Mather six and Allie Morgan four.
“It was good to open with a win,” said McCurley. “That can only give them more confidence. Jaz had a better game passing and rebounding than she did shooting. They just weren’t falling for her like they have in practice, but I was really impressed with how she got the other players involved.”
Among those other players was Allie Morgan.
“(She) played a little quicker than we have seen in practice,” McCurley said. “I thought we could have gotten the ball to her more than we did.”
McCurley said his freshmen post players rebounded and played defense well. He also pointed to the performances of Lily Mather, Hannah Davis, Madison Matt and Drea Grier, as well as Chandler and Greene as contributing factors in the win.
Repeat Performance
On Friday, the second verse was the same as the first between Commerce and Oglethorpe County. The Lady Tigers jumped out to a 15-0 lead in the first quarter, then held a 23-8 advantage by the half. They held Oglethorpe to just five points in the third quarter while adding 11 to make it a 34-13 game by the end of the quarter. The Lady Patriots would score 11 points in the final eight minutes, but Commerce scored 12 to sew up the 46-24 victory.
“I thought we played much better defensively Friday than we did the first game,” McCurley said. “We didn’t use our press as much so we didn’t get as many turnovers Friday. I am pleased we are coming out with a lot of energy and are getting a quick start in the first and third quarters. That’s something that hurt us a lot last year.”
Grier again led in scoring with 15 points, grabbed eight rebounds and had eight assists and eight steals. Morgan scored eight, Jessika Kyle six, and Lily Mather and Erica Greene scored four points each.
For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of The Commerce News.
