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The Troup County Tigers girls basketball team punched their ticket to the state tournament Wednesday with a win over Kendrick 71-48 in the 4A region 2 tournament. This was Troup County’s third victory over the Cherokees this season.

The Tigers got off to a slow start as the Cherokees outscored them 16-13 in the first quarter.

“We turned the ball over too many times,” Troup County Head Coach Carla Thornton said. “We have to take care of the ball if we want to be successful.”

The Tigers rallied in the second quarter by outsourcing Kendrick 23-8. It was a back-and-forth quarter until the Tigers established some momentum late. A couple of easy buckets late in the second quarter gave the Tigers a 12-point lead.

Troup scored the first four points coming out of the half to put the game all but out of reach.

“I liked our energy levels tonight, we were giving good effort even when things weren’t going our way,” Thornton said.

Kendrick was able to cut the lead down to 11 late in the third before Troup County went on an 11-0 run to give the Tigers their biggest lead to that point. Anytime it felt like the Cherokees were getting some momentum in the third quarter, Alexcia Murphy made a play on one end or the other. Murphy scored 12 points in the game.

Angie Dowdell carried the load on offense for the Tigers as she scored a game high 23 points.

By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, the Tigers were up by 24 points, which allowed them to rest their starters for most of the fourth quarter. The fourth quarter contained little drama as Kendrick was never able to claw back into the game.

The Cherokees will rue their missed chances after establishing a first-quarter lead. They went a combined seven of 22 from the free-throw line as they left point after point on the floor.

The Tigers will have to turn around quickly as they travel to Carver High School to take on the Hardaway Hawks on Thursday at 6 p.m. The Tigers lost both games to Hardaway during the regular season, but kept both games close late and will be looking to pull the upset Thursday night so they can play in the region championship on Saturday.