Lady Tigers close season with victory

For a pair of senior girls playing their last regular season home game at St. Regis High School, Thursday was a big night.

Amid the pomp and pageantry, flowers, balloons and hugs the Lady Tigers closed out their home season with a 55-31 rout of the Valley Christian Lady Eagles.

They made it an even bigger celebration Saturday night when they hit the road for a game in Victor and whipped the Lady Pirates 59-43 for the two game sweep.

Led by seniors Baylee Pruitt and Taylor Hurd, the Lady Tigers emerged from a bad shooting night by both teams to take a 7-5 first quarter lead. Pruitt scored five of her team’s first quarter points on a three-pointer and a two as both teams struggled to find the rim.

Pruitt added another three in the second quarter and the Lady Tigers got six points from junior Macy Hill to allow them to stay within one point of Valley Christian, 17-16, at the half.

St. Regis started finding their shooting touch in the third quarter when they outscored Valley Christian 22-12. Pruitt had another six points and Hill added eight to go with eight more points by Hurd, who’s total included a pair of long-distance threes.

That put the Lady Tigers ahead 38-29 with eight minutes to play. Then, in the fourth quarter, St. Regis cranked up their stifling defense and held the Lady Eagles to just two for the quarter while the Lady Tigers scored 17.

The win squared St. Regis’ season record at 8-8, to go with their 8-6 conference mark.

Hill led all scorers with 23 points for St. Regis, while Pruitt added 19 and Hurd chipped in 12 during the victory. The trio was in fact, the only three on the team who scored during the game, which the Tigers played without freshman post Avery Burnham, who suffered a foot injury last week in St. Regis.

The Lady Tigers returned to action Saturday night when the journeyed to Victor to face the Lady Pirates.

Despite a low shooting percentage in the early going, the Lady Tigers rode the scoring of Hill and Pruitt to a 17-9 first quarter lead. Pruitt had nine first quarter points and Hill had five for St. Regis.

Both teams came out in the second half shooting the ball better, with Pruitt tossing in four points.

Heading into halftime, St. Regis led 26-19.

The Lady Tigers continued their scoring binge in the third quarter when they out-pointed Victor 21-14 with Pruitt and Hill once again leading the way. Heading into the final quarter, St. Regis held a 47-33 lead and was able to match the Lady Pirates basket for basket the rest of the way.

The win allowed the Lady Tigers to crack the .500 mark with a 9-8 overall record. St. Regis next action is this Thursday when the Western 14C District tournament gets underway in Ronan.