Straughn’s girls put together a strong defensive effort on Thursday night and outscored Ashford 22-8 in the second half to claim a 40-30 victory over the Lady Yellow Jackets in the semifinals of the Class 4A, Area 3 tournament at AHS.

With this victory, the Lady Tigers earned a berth in the sub regional tournament next Thursday.

SHS improves to 23-4 and will face Andalusa at 7 p.m. on Saturday in the area championship finals.

In the second half, the Lady Tigers held Ashford’s Crisshada Rogers at bay, taking away her signature drive to the paint play.

“We went to a box and one on their best player in the second half, and that really won it for us,” Lady Tigers coach Scott Kinsaul said. “The girls did a great job of play it and Anjelica (Bonham) did a great job on (Rogers). She didn’t touch the ball in the second half.

“You always win with defense, especially in area tournament time,” he said.

The Lady Tigers were neck-and-neck with the No. 3 seeded Lady Yellow Jackets after the first period with the score at 5-5.

Brittany Driver got things going in the first period on a put back, and added two more off of her own steal on the other end with more than 3:30 minutes on the clock.

Tanequa Dismukes drained a trey with 2:15 left in the first period to give her team the tie game.

From the get-go, Straughn’s Jacie Williamson made a 3-pointer at the start of the second period to give the Lady Tigers an 8-5 lead.

Williamson added another trey with 6:12 on the clock to give her team an 11-8 lead.

Williamson ended a 6-2 run for her team with a lay up and the lead was 13-8.

Straughn went up 15-9 after Bonham made two free throws.

Ashford went on a little run to cut the game to 17-14 late in the first half, and cut the game to 18-16 after Rogers made two free throws at half time.

Throughout the contest, the Lady Tigers dominated the Lady Yellow Jackets on the boards.

Straughn led 26-17 after back-to-back treys from Williamson and Audrey Driver.

The Lady Tigers led 30-22 at the end of the third period.

Katelyn Kinsaul’s pass to Williamson netted an easy buck and Straughn went ahead 34-22 with 4:51 left in the fourth period.

Ashford cut the lead to seven at 37-30 after Dismukes’ 3-pointer with 27.2 seconds left.

Straughn’s Janelle Nurse made the last three points with three free-throws.

Driver led Straughn with 15 points, and Williamson chipped in 11 points.

Dismukes led the Lady Yellow Jackets with 16. Rogers had seven points.

“I was proud of the way we played and made our free throws down there at the end,” Kinsaul said.