By Kevin Eckleberry

kevin.eckleberry@lagrangenews.com

CARROLLTON – The Troup Tigers opened their stay in the Carrollton holiday tournament with an impressive 66-40 victory over M.L. King on Thursday.

Troup will play in the semifinals against Carrollton today at 7:30 p.m. with a berth in Saturday’s championship game on the line.

Truop (5-3) won for the fifth time in six games since opening the season with back-to-back losses.

Jarrious Jefferson led Troup with 26 points, Montez Crowe added nine points, and Tristen Ware scored eight.

Twelve out of Troup’s 15 players scored, and the team delivered a suffocating defensive effort.

“There were a lot of positives,” Troup head coach Blake Craft said. “They came out and buckled down. They’re starting to believe that if you have good practices, the games are a lot easier. We beat the heck up on each other in practice. They were ready to beat up on somebody else.”

Craft said he was encouraged by the way the players supported each other.

“It was a great chemistry night,” he said. “Everybody was cheering for each other. That was fun to see