STOCKBRIDGE, Ga. - The Alcovy Lady Tigers jumped out to an early lead and rode their strong start to a commanding 50-39 victory over the Hapeville Charter Lady Hornets in the first round of the annual Christmas tournament held at Woodland High School.
The Lady Tigers held the Lady Hornets to just four points in the second quarter and would walk into the halftime break with an 11-point lead. The defensive dominance in that quarter would lead to double-digit leads at the end of each quarter as the Lady Hornets could not overcome the Lady Tigers in any quarter.
The Lady Tigers have relied on a bevy of scorers this season, but this game belonged to the outstanding play of Ajoyous Tuggle, who led all scorers with an outstanding 20 points.
Lady Tigers' head coach Justin Hunter did not seem surprised by Tuggle's remarkable showing and was happy to see her progress and show off her talents.
"She's maturating before our eyes. Just seeing where she's come from the last three seasons that she's been playing," Hunter said. "She's matured a lot, and that's what you want to see in their senior year. She's playing on both sides of the ball, getting rebounds, adding buckets and getting good assists. If she keeps it up, the sky is the limit for her."
Tuggle had some help as Unique Reed also finished in double digits with 11 points, and Serai Johnson and Dalehia Bolden both finished with seven points.
After games, Hunter always mentions how his team does in the two E's, effort and execution. He seemed overall pleased with the effort of his team but believes there is still room for improvement from an execution standpoint.
"I was pleased. I think we performed about 80% of where we should be and that 20% came in other fundamental areas of play like finishing layups and making smart passes and that 20% can be the difference in tighter ball games," Hunter said. "We're still looking for more execution, and at times, we wanted a little more effort as well, but overall we got the result we wanted."
Hunter expects that filling the gap from the 80% to the 100% mark that he wants his team to hit in every contest will be crucial in the second round of this tournament as the Lady Tigers will face a tough Dougherty Lady Trojans team.
"I believe Dougherty will be a tough matchup tomorrow, but hopefully, we can come in tomorrow knowing that we have gotten on track and can seal the deal in this holiday tournament," Hunter said in regards to his team's second-round matchup.
