After getting off to a sluggish start, Sunshine (21-4) pulled away from Billingsley en route to a 48-25 win in the the AHSAA Class 1A sub-regional round playoffs Thursday.

“We played slow the whole game,” Sunshine head coach Phillip Wagner said. “We weren’t focused the whole game at all. We weren’t playing well and we were too relaxed.”

The Lady Tigers were locked in an 11-11 tie in the second quarter before stretching the lead out to 28-14 by halftime. By the start of the fourth quarter, Sunshine was up 38-22 and threw the game into cruise control.

“It was like everybody was for themselves,” junior Shafontaye Myers said. “If we want to win state, we’ve got to come together.”

Myers led the way for the team with 32 points, 12 rebounds and nine steals in the game. The win advances Sunshine to the regional round at Alabama State University Wednesday.

“Go back to the drawing board and work hard,” Wagner said of the team’s approach to the regional round. “I might change my whole lineup. We’ll play the ones that are focused.”

The regional round is not foreign territory to the Lady Tigers, who have missed out on going to Birmingham more than they’d like to remember.

“This week we’re going to have to come together, practice hard, have a heart to play the game,” Myers said. “We know that nothing is given to us. But this is our year. We’re claiming it, so we’ve got to go and get it.”

“The bottom line is we’ve got to stay focused. If not, we’ll be home early,” Wagner said. “I feel blessed to get through this round. If it had been anybody else, we would have been home (next Wednesday).”