For one of Tallulah Falls’ most successful programs over the past 4 years, the only thing missing was a region tournament championship. The Lady Indians can now check that box after a 47-38 win over Prince Avenue Christian at George Walton in the title game on Tuesday night.
In a tight, low-scoring night, the Lady Indians never wavered on the way to the win. The girls grabbed a 12-7 lead following the first quarter of play. Prince Avenue battled back to within a single point at 16-15, but TFS used a 5-0 run to close out the half. Molly Mitchell hit a 3-pointer with a second left on the clock, and the Lady Indians were up 21-15.
TFS outpaced Prince Ave 8-4 in the low-scoring third, giving the Lady Indians a comfortable 29-19 cushion going into the final stanza. Prince Avenue stormed back with an immediate 3-pointer. It appeared as though TFS was set to put the game away when driving up the lead to 33-22, but Prince Avenue scored 8 unanswered, which included back-to-back 3-pointers to make it a 3-point game with under 5 minutes to play.
Denika Lightbourne retaliated with her own triple, pushing it to 36-30 with 3 minutes to go. Lightbourne then converted a 3-point play to make it 39-32 with 1:54 on the clock. From there, the Lady Indians locked it down for the historic win, closing out the game with an 8-6 run.
The Lady Indians are now on a 3-game win streak and are 13-4 overall. The girls had claimed the regular season region title for a second straight season, but this marks the first-ever straight-up region championship for girls basketball.
Lightbourne paced the offense with a game-high 14 points, while Macy Murdock added 11 for TFS. Veronaye Charlton had 7, Kailyn Neal 6, Mitchell 5, and Tanisha Seymour 4.
The journey continues next week when TFS will host the first round of the state playoffs on either February 22 or 23, with the opponent to be determined.
