Alcovy used a mercy-ruled shortened 59-23 victory to advance past East Coweta and the first round of the state playoffs Tuesday.

The No. 1 seed Lady Tigers used a strong defensive effort throughout, especially in the fourth quarter, to start a playoff run they hope will send them back to the final four for the second straight year, and beyond.

“Our motto has been, unfinished business,” Alcovy coach Kidada Holtzclaw said. “I see the fire that I saw in them this past weekend when we won the region championship. We’re just ready to go; we felt going to the final four was great, but we want to go further.”

Alcovy held East Coweta scoreless in the second quarter and held off a brief run in the third quarter to outscore the Indians 14-10 and headed into the fourth quarter up by 30.

“We played very good defense,” Holtzclaw said. “We had some people really step up and get some key steals and deflections. I thought we did a great job as a team coming together and playing pretty good defense.”

Ashley Williams and Meagan Tucker led the way with 19 and 12 points respectively, but the Lady Tigers also got a big game from Daja Barnes.

The Lady Tigers will host Valdosta in the second round at 7 p.m. Friday.