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The 8th Grade Dupo Tiger basketball squad defeated the Jr Greyhounds of Lebanon 37-32 on Monday night. It was a close game between two teams that appeared to be evenly matched. But the Jr Tigers pulled it out in the fourth quarter to get the victory.
The two teams were tied 5-5 at the end of the first quarter. Neither team could find any rhythm and took a lot of bad shots. Add to that a number of mistakes on the part of both teams resulting in turnovers. But neither team appeared to be able to cash in on the opportunities given them. The second quarter was not much better than the first. The Tigers outscored the Greyhounds 10-8 in the quarter to take a 15-13 lead at the half but it was really anybody’s game.
Play seemed to pick up a bit in the second half as both teams seemed to play with a bit more urgency, maybe sensing the need to seize opportunity while they may. Defense gave the Tigers the spark they needed as they forced some turnovers that converted into Tiger points. 8th Grade Tiger basketball Coach Kraig Roth said, “I thought that we played a lot better defensively in the second half. That created some offensive opportunities from our defense. Our defense enabled us to get into transition and that brought about some fouls and got us to the free throw line.” Lebanon responded in their half court offense working the ball low to their big man, out rebounding the Tigers and getting some second chance points. But as the third quarter closed it was still very close at 26-22 with Dupo outscoring Lebanon 11-9 in the quarter.
The fourth quarter was not unlike the third. Dupo continued to play pressure defense and Lebanon was firmly set on working the ball into the low post. But the Tiger defense was slightly more opportunistic than the Lebanon offense as the Tigers outscored the Greyhounds 11-10 in the fourth quarter to get the win 37-32. Coach Roth said, “Offensively I think we played a pretty suspect game all around. We made some shots that probably weren’t the best shots to be taking, but we made them. It’s kind of hard to fault them too much on that but we are trying to coach them into taking better shots.”
Tyler Barnes led all players in scoring with 14 points and was 4 of 7 at the free throw line. He was followed by Willie Kidd and Deondre’ Brown with 8 points each. Brown was 2 of 2 from the free throw line. Tiger guard Corey Biggs had a good game defensively, harassing the Greyhound ball handlers and forcing a number of turnovers. Coach Roth said, “Corey had a lot of steals tonight although he had some trouble finishing. But the very fact that we had the lead and the ball when we got a steal means that we’re still keeping them from scoring”
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