Ringgold girls ready to host first-round game at state
The Ringgold Lady Tigers suffered an eight-point loss to the Calhoun Lady Jackets in Calhoun back in early December, but returned the favor with a narrow four-point win in Ringgold back on Jan. 14.
So when the two rivals were scheduled to meet in Friday night’s Region 6-AAA tournament semifinals at North Murray High School, there was no reason to believe that the rubber match would be anything less than another nail-biter.
However, that was not what happened.
The Lady Tigers, the tournament’s No. 1 seed, played lockdown defense all game long and put on a passing clinic as they steamrolled the Lady Jackets, 66-38, to move on to the championship game.
Ringgold (18-7) stormed out to a 16-4 lead after the first quarter and carried a 28-16 lead into the locker room before pulling away for good in the third quarter.
A 12-4 run to start the second half boosted Ringgold’s advantage to 20 points with 4:53 left in the quarter. The Blue-and-white followed up with a 16-5 spurt that included the remainder of the third quarter and the first two minutes of the fourth as the lead ballooned to 31 points.
The Lady Tigers would actually increase their advantage even more later in the quarter, stretching it out to as many as 35 points with less than two minutes to play as they also increased their winning streak to 12 in a row.
Rachel Akers had a teamhigh 17 points go with six rebounds and four assists. Shelby Cole finished with 12 points and five steals.
TIGERS,