The Demopolis Tigers played host to the Linden Patriots on Friday night, and the DHS girls earned a victory, while the DHS boys could not.

The Lady Tigers started fast in the first quarter and took a commanding 26-5 lead after the first quarter. Linden was able to put a little more offense together in the second quarter, but still trailed Demopolis 39-15 at the half.

In the second half, Demopolis cruised to the end of the game, and came away with the 66-44 victory.

Head coach Tony Pittman said he was pleased with how the girls played in the first half, but thought they slacked off too much in the second half.

“We started the game strong,” he said, “but we got lackadaisical as we got up on them. We have to execute for four quarters. We have to keep getting young players experience so we can play at a high level at all times.”

Martina Smith led the Lady Tigers by making seven three-pointers and finishing the game with 23 points. Jonniece Collins poured in 19, Sha’Deitra White added 8, Alexis Jones had 6, Ivory Moore and Shartisha Tripp had 4 each and Ebony Moore had 2.

The Lady Tigers move to 5-1 with the victory.

In the boys game, Demopolis was never able to grab a lead. Linden came out in the first quarter playing aggressively on defense, and they kept Demopolis’ offense out of sync. The Tigers trailed 23-18 after the first.

In the second quarter, it was more of the same. Demopolis could not slow down Linden’s offensive attack, and the Patriots widened their lead by the half. They went into the break leading the Tigers 36-28.

In the third, Demopolis made a couple of short runs, but still could not find an answer for Linden’s offense, and trailed 59-48 heading into the fourth quarter.

The best Demopolis could do in the fourth was bring the game to single digits a couple of times. The Tigers had to fight for every basket and could not keep Linden’s offense out of the paint. Second-chance points hurt the Tigers throughout the game.

The Tigers fell to the Patriots 82-68.

Head coach Rodney Jackson was not happy with his team’s performance.

“We didn’t play defense,” he said. “We have to go back to the drawing board.”

Cortez Lewis and Rashad Lynch were the leading scorers for the Tigers with 16 points each. Roderick Davis added 12, Kiante’ Jefferies had 8, Demetrius Kemp had 7, Tommy Wilson had 6 and Kevin Isaac added 3.

The Tigers have now lost three straight and fall to 2-4. Demopolis travels to R.C. Hatch on Saturday.