Manassas girls cruise to Region 8-AA championship

from CommercialAppeal.com

One by one, young and old, Manassas alumni members gave congratulatory hugs and handshakes to Lady Tiger girls basketball coach Tommy Warren.

They were, after all, among those who seemed just as thrilled about the history the Lady Tigers produced Wednesday night against Trezevant in the TSSAA Region 8-AA championship game.

In the fourth meeting this season between the teams, Manassas quickly jumped out to a sizable lead against the Lady Bears at Northside High and never took its foot off the gas in cruising to a 65-52 victory that claimed its first ever region championship.

“There aren’t words to describe how it feels right now,” Manassas senior point guard Victoria White said after scoring 16 points and being named 8-AA’s Most Outstanding Player. “We had to come out and put Trezevant away. They’ve been keeping up with us.”

Wednesday was an entirely different story.

In winning their third straight, the Lady Tigers (26-8) led the entire game, raced to a 15-4 lead after the opening quarter, and held the Lady Bears (18-7) without a field goal the first 10:22 of the game. One week removed from dropping a one-point decision to Trezevant in the District 15-AA championship, Manassas continued to surge as junior combo guard Denise Johnson orchestrated the Lady Tigers’ offensive charge with nifty no-look passes that led to easy baskets in transition and, ultimately led to their largest lead of 21.

With the win, the Lady Tigers will a Class AA sectional game Saturday against McNairy Central (24-7), which lost, 70-56, at home to Liberty Tech (27-4) Wednesday night in the Region 7-AA final. Trezevant, meanwhile, will travel to Jackson play Liberty Tech.

Shaney Cunningham scored 15 points and fellow senior Tiffany Jones, the Lady Tigers top scorer who averages 12.3 points per game, had 9. Lille Pittman scored 15 points and Jasmine Pittman added 12 for the Lady Bears, who saw their four-game winning snapped.

“Free throws. Free throws. Free throws,” Trezevant coach Marcus Stokes said in assessing Wednesday’s game. “We missed, I believe, 15 free throws tonight and just couldn’t get it going offensively.”