It was a wonderful senior night for the Lady Tigers, not only did they get the win, but senior Tierra Hodges scored her 1,000th career point and was honored with the game ball during Alcovy’s 55-38 win over Lakeside.

Kai Patterson opened the scoring off a Lakeside turnover with a pretty floater in the paint. Finally, after over two minutes of play it was Hodges turn to shine. She nailed an 18-footer to give Alcovy a 6-0 lead and give herself a career milestone with her 1,000th point.

Announcer Chris Edgar stopped the contest and Coach Kevin Furtado presented Hodges with the game ball.

“It feels really good because I’ve been working since ninth grade year training day in and day out, five days a week just to reach this point,” said Hodges. “This has been my goal ever since I started playing basketball in high school and I was determined to reach it. Hard work pays off.”

“I feel like I progressed a lot. I put in the work for it, I was determined to really change from 4-5 position to try to play the 2-3-4 position, and that’s what I worked on. I feel like I really improved on it. I think I’m pretty good at it,” she added.

The goal-oriented Hodges, who is one of the best players if not the best player in the county, now has her eyes set on her post-high school career where she will have a myriad of choices.

“Right now I’m really focused on trying to get a scholarship to play basketball in college,” Hodges said. “I really wanna perfect that three position because I know that’s what I’m going to be playing in college so that’s what I’m gonna keep working at to perfect it and so when I get in college it’ll be a lot easier and I’ll be more comfortable with it.”

Furtado spoke about just how good HOdges is, which showed throughout the contest in how she was both able to get baskets for herself and free up chances for her team to get good looks.

“She’s really been the foundation of our program,” Furtado said.

“The best thing about her is she comes to practice every day. There’s no better leader, no better worker than her and that to me just sets the example for our program.”

“She’s actually providing the other girls a lot of open shots. A lot of our girls are unguarded because they’re packing it in on her,” Furtado said. “I mean that’s like tonight, they go box-and-one. We’ve seen box-and-one lately all the time. She’s a good passer, she distributes the ball well, she just does it all for us. She makes the other girls around her better.”

The Lady Tigers had a slight scoring drought but then Tamia Brown and Patterson drained back-to-back triples, giving Alcovy a 12-2 lead. Lakeside’s offense woke up and finished the first period on a 6-0 run with the Lady Tigers leading 14-8 to end the first quarter.

Alcovy was able to get the lead back to double digits with a steal by Brown that led to a hook shot Patrice Hall. Followed by Brown’s second triple of the game to make it 23-10, Alcovy.

After a Lakeside free throw, Patterson hit a triple and drew a foul but couldn't convert the four-point play. Lady Vikings’ Mashayla Brown got into the lane on the next possession and scored for Lakeside to trim the lead to 26-13. The Lady Vikings would score again but Hodges found Patterson for another trey and the Lady Tigers went into halftime up 29-15.

Lakeside adjusted at the half and came out playing like the better team. The Lady Vikings went on a 10-2 run capped off by a layup from Caroline Mclean to get within six points early in the third.

Two trips to the charity stripe for Hodges (3-4) made it 34-25 at the midway point of the third. A putback by Tyja Traose answered a 5-0 run by Hodges and got Lakeside within five with under three minutes left in the third. Despite another layup by Hodges, Lakeside was able to get make it a game trailing Alcovy 38-35.

The Lady Tigers were crumbling on offense with bad passes that turned into turnovers allowing Lakeside to get back in the game. Alcovy led 40-37 heading into the fourth, but they were outscored 22-11 in the third period.

Lauren Hill, who played excellent defense on the night, and Hall both scored in the first minute of the the fourth quarter extending Alcovy’s lead to 44-37.

It got chippy when Patterson was fouled hard, but it didn't escalate and Patterson knocked down 1-2 free throws. Alcovy was up by eight, the crowd was excited and the defense fed off the energy and began to force turnovers.

Another Lady Viking turnover turned into two points for Hodges that gave the Lady Tigers a 49-38 lead with under four minutes to play.

An assist from Perry to Hall gave Alcovy a 16-point cushion, which was all they needed to escape the Lady Vikings’ second half push with a victory.

Hodges finished with 21 points and Brown was the second leading scorer with 12.