Headland’s Starla Williams put up a three-pointer to tie the game at 42-42, but the ball rimmed out and bounced Straughn’s way as the Lady Tigers beat the Lady Rams 42-39 in the semifinals of the Class 4A, Area 3 tournament in Andalusia Thursday night.

Straughn and Headland stayed evenly matched throughout the contest. The Lady Tigers, though, led 6-2 after the first period, 18-8 at half time and 21-18 after the third period.

The Lady Tigers and the Lady Rams shot 21 points each in the last period.

SHS girls coach Scott Kinsaul said in the end, he was glad the ball bounced his team’s way, referring to an almost loss to the Lady Rams earlier this season.

“They had a shot that rimmed out that would’ve won it, and tonight they had a shot that would’ve tied it,” Kinsaul said. “The ball bounced our way tonight.”

With this win, the Lady Tigers improve to 21-7 overall, and a spot in the Class 4A sub-regional round next week. Straughn will face Andalusia in the area tournament finals Saturday.

Kinsaul said it feels especially “good” to get a berth in the sub-regional round.

“We were upset last year, and we didn’t make it,” he said. “We wanted to make it back. Fortunately, we did, and I’m just glad to be moving on.”

Jacie Williamson led Straughn with 12 points. Anjelica Bonham contributed with 10 points. Straughn senior Sierra Danford had nine points, and senior Tiffany Taylor had seven points. Taylor’s points came from the free-throw line, where she was 7-of-10 in the fourth period.

“She made some good free throws there in the end, and she did what a senior is supposed to in the end, and that was make free throws,” Kinsaul said about Taylor. “But I thought we all played well tonight.”

Straughn’s inside game between senior Katy Messick to Williamson, or the other way around made up the Lady Tigers’ low-scoring affair in the first period.

Messick continued to find Williamson in the paint in the second period, where the talented 8th grader made a clutch turn-around jump shot to help her team take a 12-5 lead with 5:20 remaining.

Headland came out and played man-to-man on defense, which led to some bumps along the way for Straughn in the third period.

The Lady Rams outscored SHS 10-3 in the third period.

“They came out in man on us — and they hadn’t played man on us just for a few minutes — the first two times we played them,” Kinsaul said. “We hadn’t worked on it. We worked on their zone the last few days, and it just took us a while to get in a rhythm.”

Headland’s Brittney Chancey led the Lady Rams with 19 points, and L. Money had seven points.

The Lady Tigers were 14-of-24 from the foul line.