FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The Baldwin County Tigers took a big lead in the first half of their matchup Friday night against the Fairhope Pirates and rolled to a comfortable 56-41 giving the Tigers the important region win.

With the Pirates up early 7-4 the Tigers went on a 21-0 run giving them a comfortable lead that sustained the entire evening thanks to a suffocating defense and an up tempo offense that kept the Pirates on their heels the entire evening.

“That’s what we try to do. When we do it at right we are at our best,” BCHS coach Robert Wills said. “We have a tendency to start halves slow as witnessed by the second half. We made a couple shots that we needed to make and we made a couple stops. We played a good game tonight.”

The Tigers led by as many as 21 points in the first half and they were led the majority of the evening by leading scorer Latia Pullum.

Pullum scored 19 points for the Tigers on the night and was the leader all night both on the offensive and defensive ends of the floor.

With the Tigers leading by 16 at the half the defense needed to step up huge in the early part of the second half when the Pirates trimmed their deficit to as little as 12 points in the early part of the second half.

Thanks to many second half turnovers the Tigers were able to shut the door on the Pirates.

“That’s what we work on; that is our style of play. I am blessed to have some girls that can move a little bit and know how to play basketball,” Wills said. “Again that is our style, that is what we do and it paid off tonight.”

With the win the Tigers improved their record to 1-0 within the region. With the loss the Pirates drop to 0-1 in region play.