The home cooking that comes along with being a second seed paid off for the Marshall Tigerettes as they easily handled the Hickman County Lady Bulldogs in front of a lively Friday night crowd at the Dottie Kelso Memorial Gymnasium in Lewisburg.

The Tigerettes came out smoking and took a small first quarter lead before stepping on the gas pedal while keeping constant pressure on the Lady Bulldogs for the rest of the game as they coasted to a 45-26 win in the first round of the Region 6-AA Tournament.

“Our mentality was we have been there, we’ve done this, they haven’t we have, so let’s go out and play that way,” MCHS coach David Steely said. “We are one of 32 teams left now, everybody remembers last year, we struggled and had to come from behind in this same game to beat Lewis County, tonight we put them away.”

In other first-round elimination games, Stewart County held on at home to beat Forrest 52-50, Creek Wood spanked Giles County 69-49, and Nolensville demolished Fairview 64-30.

The Tigerettes’ (18-8) next opponent was Creek Wood (27-3) and Nolensville (24-4) took on Stewart County (20-10) on Monday night at Community.

“This next one is going to be big,” Steely said. “It’s an elimination game and at this point there are not any bad teams left, everybody has been winning and you have to come out and play your best.”

“I tell them all the time, defense and rebounding will travel, every night, every game and if you can just put together a few offensive spurts you can win, so we will be ready Monday night.”

The winners play for the region title Wednesday night and are guaranteed a state sectional game.

Karlye Wiser and Dionna Crutcher banged home back-to-back 3-pointers to start the game Friday night before points were had to come by from both ball clubs as Hickman County fought back to trail 8-5 and only by four after one late Crutcher free throw ended the first quarter.

The Lady Bulldogs came up with a 5-2 mini-run to start the second quarter that was capped off by a Lacey Carter bucket before Marshall County shifted gears.

Hickman County had the ball trailing by one point when senior Hannah Davis came up with a huge blocked shot that led to a 3-pointer by Crutcher and after a Lady Bulldogs’ miscue, Sydney Tidwell drained one from long range to make it 17-10.

“Hannah did have a lot of energy tonight, that’s the Hannah Davis I remember from a freshman up,” Steely said. “She has had a tough year, she hurt her ankle then had the flu that turned to pneumonia, so it was good to see her have energy like that.”

“She had it in practice today, she came to practice upbeat and with high energy, so I knew she had something special for them, she didn’t play against Hickman County earlier this year and she wanted to show them that she could play.”

Davis blocked another shot that didn’t lead to any points, but moments later Wiser stole the ball and scored to extend the lead to nine points and Israel Hurt added two free throws at the end of the first half, giving Lewisburg a big 21-10 lead at the break.

Crutcher and Kelsey Keiler scored on back-to-back possessions by Marshall County to start the third period and Davis came up with a huge steal and score that electrified the crowd as the Tigerettes led 27-10.

A few minutes of non-scoring ticked off the clock before Davis swiped the rock again and was fouled.

Davis made 1-of-2 and after a Hickman County missed field goal, Keiler essentially put the game away when she converted a three-point play the old-fashioned way to make it a 31-10 contest.

“I was proud of our defensive intensity, we held them to 10 in the first half, five each quarter,” Steely said. “We finally had a little spurt at the end of the second and at start of the third.”

The Tigerettes led by 23 points at the end of the third quarter and took full control of the basketball in the fourth quarter to win going away.

“We talked at the half and said we have a chance here to step on their throat and put them away and we came out and did that,” Steely said. “I was proud of that because we have struggled a little bit to start third quarters this year, instead we came out and put it on them and got everyone in the game and that is always fun.”

Crutcher led the Tigerettes in the scoring column with 12 points and Wiser was also in double figures with 11. Both players drained three 3-pointers apiece.

Keiler ended up with nine points, Davis added seven, and Tidwell and Hurt finished with three points apiece.

Hickman County 5 5 6 10-26

Marshall County 9 12 18 6-45

Hickman County (26): Kinsley Spears 6, Lacey Carter 6, Bailey Gilbert 5, Addie Puckett 4, Korbin Witherspoon 2, Harmony Dansby 2, Gia Lawrence 1.

Three-Point Goals (1): Gilbert.

Free Throws (7-for-10): Puckett 4-for-4, Spears 2-for-2, Lawrence 1-for-2, Gilbert 0-for-2.

Marshall County (45): Dionna Crutcher 12, Karlye Wiser 11, Kelsey Keiler 9, Hannah Davis 7, Sydney Tidwell 3, Israel Hurt 3.

Three-Point Goals (7): Wiser 3, Crutcher 3, Tidwell.

Free Throws (8-for-13): Hurt 3-for-6, Keiler 3-for-3, Crutcher 1-for-2, Davis 1-for-2.

Halftime Score: Marshall County 21, Hickman County 26.