GRAY DEYOSports Writer

The Lady Wildcats set the tone early in their win against Central Magnet, as they went on to win the contest 45-30.

The Tullahoma girls were snapping the ball around the perimeter in the first quarter, making the opposing Lady Tigers constantly work on the defensive side. Their ball movement opened up several holes in the zone Central was running in the first quarter and the Lady Wildcats were finding them.

“We saw a few spots that we felt like we could exploit and the team did a great job of seeing those and making the right decisions to find those open areas. Sharing the basketball always helps offense efficiency and we did a really good job with that,” said head coach of the Lady Wildcats Chad Hibdon.

Tullahoma started the game on an 11-2 run with threes raining in from Lakayiah Barnes, Addison Vincent, and Lizzy Sharpton. All threes came from wide-open shots, as Tullahoma took advantage of the open space they were generating and no other Lady Wildcat was more so than freshman guard Sharpton.

Sharpton finished the game as Tullahoma’s second-leading scorer with 11 and similar to Austin Tinnon’s game on the boys’ basketball team for Tullahoma, her skill set has always been defensively focused.

Every night you know she will create at least a couple of turnovers, get her team a lot of hard-fought rebounds, and flat out be the biggest hustler on the court. Her skill set on offense and what she can bring now and in the future on that side of the ball is starting to show.

“She is getting more comfortable in what we are doing and the concepts of our offense,” said Hibdon regarding Sharpton.

“She has always been a player who studies a lot of film, gets up extra shots and when you do that confidence comes from the work. It is an accumulation of her multiple efforts to improve that has led to the increase in her offensive production.”

The Lady Tigers were hanging just in range of making things interesting late in the contest after they outscored Tullahoma in the third 12-8, making the score 31-21 going into the final quarter. Junior Lady Wildcat McLayne Bobo, however, provided the boost Tullahoma needed to close out the game, scoring 11 of her game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter. The 15-point victory is the girls’ ninth of the season, and they will look to hit the double-digit win mark for the seventh season in a row when they take on Lawrence County on Jan. 21.