The Marshall County Tigerettes entertained longtime foe Fairview Friday night at the Dottie Kelso Memorial Gymnasium in Lewisburg in the 24th matchup between the two former district rivals since 2001.

A big fourth quarter and a balanced scoring attack lifted the Tigerettes to a 47-36 win and a fifth straight victory over the Lady Yellow Jackets, who will get a chance to break Marshall County’s winning streak when they play host in the season series finale on January 9, 2020.

“We played a little bit better tonight than what we have been playing,” MCHS coach David Steely said. “We played harder, played more our style of basketball and got back to playing hard on defense and rebounding and our offense came along.”

Senior Hannah Davis had a big night in the low post for the 2018-2019 state tournament participant Tigerettes, leading all scorers in the game with 16 points.

“It didn’t start out great good for us, but we were consistent,” Steely said. “We were able to pound it inside pretty good and that’s probably going to be more our style this year.”

Junior Dionna Crutcher and senior Kelsey Keiler were also in double figures with 14 and 10 points respectfully.

Karlye Wiser and Sydney Tidwell had three points apiece as they both canned one three-pointer.

“I was trying to find a way to get Karlye and Sydney a couple more shots, but it was going inside too much and we were getting good shots, so we just stuck with that,” Steely said. “We really just had a game plan of being more consistent defensively and more consistent with just playing hard, we haven’t been playing hard and we did tonight and that let us pull away in the fourth quarter.”

The Tigerettes jumped out to an early 10-5 lead behind four points by Davis and three-pointers by Tidwell and Crutcher before Fairview went on a 9-0 run to end the first quarter with a 14-10 lead.

Fairview matched the Tigerettes’ five-point, first quarter lead early in the second period after a three-point play the old-fashioned way by Neyland Yeager and a long bomb by Kendall Spicer.

Marshall County fought back, making it a one-point game on a Wiser three-pointer and with one minute remaining in the second period, Keiler took the rock to the rack and put the Tigerettes in front 23-22.

After a Fairview missed field goal, Keiler grabbed the rebound and fed Israel Hurt on the run and she was fouled on a drive to the basket.

Hurt made one-of-two from the free throw line and the Tigerettes went to the halftime break with a 24-22 lead.

“I really didn’t tell them much at halftime because we had two great practices coming in,” Steely said. “I just told them let’s just keep being consistent and we will be able to contest shots and they will miss more this half.”

“I felt If we just kept getting good shots and didn’t turn the ball over we would be ok and that’s kind of what happened.”

Marshall County started the second half with an 8-2 run behind five points from Crutcher, including her second trey of the game as the Tigerettes opened up their biggest lead of the contest at eight points.

The Lady Jackets stung back again, putting up a 6-0 run on another Spicer three-pointer and a steal and score by Kaycie Mullins to trail 32-30 at the end of the third quarter.

The Tigerettes continued to dominate the paint as Davis scored in the low post to open the fourth quarter and Crutcher made a pair of free throws on separate possessions to make it 36-30.

After a Fairview brick, Crutcher made it a nine-point game at 39-30 on a three-point play the old-fashioned way.

One free throw apiece by Davis and Keiler gave Marshall County a double digit lead and another low post bucket by Davis put the Lady Jackets in a huge hole at 43-30 with three minutes remaining in the game.

Two Spicer three-pointers cut the MCHS lead to seven points late, but the Tigerettes scored the final four points of the game to take the 11-point victory.

“We had a good fourth quarter, we were able to pull it out there with about three minutes or so to go and we looked good holding the ball and that made me feel good,” Steely said, “We just have to continue to get better, we are not where we need to be, but we are ok and we will work hard enough to get better and maybe by district season we will be ready to go.”

The Tigerettes (3-2) will not be back in action until Saturday, when they travel to Franklin County to take on the Lady Rebels (1-4-1).

Marshall County does not play a District 12-AA contest until January 14, 2020 when they host the Community Viqueens (4-4) in the first of 10 consecutive league games with the regular season finale on Valentine’s Day at defending district champ Nolensville (4-2).

Fairview 14 8 8 6-36

MCHS 10 14 8 15-47

Fairview (36): Kaycie Mullins 13, Kendall Spicer 12, Chloe Lee 7, Neyland Yeager 3, Kelsey Gossage 1.

Three-point goals (6): Spicer 4, Lee, Yeager.

Free Throws (4-for-7): Mullins 2-for-4, Gossage 1-for-2, Yeager 1-for-1.

Marshall County (47): Hannah Davis 16, Dionna Crutcher 14, Kelsey Keiler 10, Karlye Wiser 3, Sydney Tidwell 3, Israel Hurt 1.

Three-point goals (4): Crutcher 2, Wiser, Tidwell.

Free Throws (13-for-22): Davis 4-for-8, Crutcher 4-for-5, Keiler 4-for-5, Hurt 1-for-2, Wiser 0-for-2.

Halftime Score: MCHS 24, Fairview 22.