| Caleb Suggs

Caleb Suggs

Hartselle Enquirer

It was another installment in the Hartselle and Cullman rivalry when the Hartselle Lady Tigers traveled to take on the Cullman Bearcats. The Lady Tigers were coming off a heartbreaking loss to area opponent Decatur and desperately needed to take this area game. The last time these two teams met, the Tigers cruised to an easy victory and they were hoping for more of the same this time.

It was a back and forth struggle early on but it would end up being the Bearcats who took the early advantage at 15-12. Cullman would tack on to their lead to make it 19-12 and put the Tigers in an early bind. The tigers were struggling to move the ball inside to score and were hesitating to pull the trigger behind the three-point line. Senior Kayla Key would get things rolling for the Tigers by hitting a three to cut the lead to 19-15. She would follow it up with a great rebound and assist to Jordan Finn to cut it to 19-17. Finn would find Lindsay Berry just before halftime to cut the lead to 21-19.

As the second half started, Cullman got off to a fast start again by boosting their lead t0 25-19. Lindsay Berry would reel off five straight points to cut the lead to 25-24. The rest of the quarter would go back and forth, Hartselle would begin to pull away just before the end of the quarter by going up 34-30. Cullman would hit a shot and a foul to boot just before the buzzer to cut the lead to 34-33 at the start of the fourth quarter.

The start of the fourth quarter began as back and forth as the end of the third quarter. Cullman would take their last lead of the night when they went up 40-39. Anna Mathis would put the Tigers back on top with a three-point play to make the gam 42-40. Hartselle would then seal the game by nailing all their foul shots at the end of the game as they took home the victory 48-40.

Player of the game: Jordan Finn. Their were some struggles early on but by the end of the game the Tigers were controlling the inside and a lot of that was in part to Finn. Finn played tough on both sides of the court in order to get great blocks and scores.