The Demopolis High Tigers played an almost perfect first period of play against the Choctaw County Tigers Tuesday night going 5-5 from the floor with no turnovers and took a 12-11 lead.

But that was about as good as it got for the (7-5) Tigers.

With their selfish play and lack of defensive effort throughout the second, third and fourth periods, the Tigers turned the ball over 23 times, shot 13-of-43 from the floor and were eventually embarrassed on their home court 61-42.

DHS head coach Jesse Bell spent most of the night confused, wondering were his man-to-man defense. “Tuesday night our defensive looked so poor that you couldn’t even tell that we were playing man-to-man coverage. We looked like we were in a zone for most of the game,” Bell said.

The aggressive defensive play that was displayed last Friday against Greene County was nowhere to be found on Tuesday night. “We had too many players watching and not enough players going after the ball,” Bell said.

Not only did the visiting Tigers walk away from this match-up with 61 points but they also grabbed 18 offensive rebounds on the night in the process.

“We rely on our defense to win games and Tuesday night there was just no defensive effort.” Bell said.

But despite the poor shooting percentage, the 23 turnovers and being out-rebounded 31-23, what really seemed to upset coach Bell the most was his teams selfishness with the ball.

Throughout the second and third periods of play the Tigers collected more turnovers than points, which was a result of a more individual performance rather than team performance.

“You can’t win that way. And I will not have that kind of play on my basketball team,” Bell said.