DAPHNE, Alabama — The score was tied twice and the lead changed hands four times in the fourth quarter as Daphne and Baldwin County traded late scoring runs Friday night. But in the end, Amber Yelding scored 21 points and Sierra Patterson added 13 to lead Daphne’s Lady Trojans to a 55-49 senior-night win at Trojan Gym.  

Latreka Jenkins led the visiting Lady Tigers with 16 points as both teams ready for area-tournament play.

The win made the Daphne girls 19-5 overall and caps an 8-game win streak going into the 6A Area 3 tournament which they are hosting beginning at 6 p.m., Thursday.  The Lady Tigers will travel to McGill-Toolen Catholic Thursday to begin the 6A Area 4 tournament where they will face Williamson. 

The Lady Tigers, 11-12 and hampered by injuries to two starters all year, welcomed one back Friday in CoCo Knight who scored eight points in limited time against Daphne.

“It’s CoCo’s first game back and I think she contributed a lot,” said BCHS head coach Robert Wills. “I think we’re playing better than we were early in the year anyway and have been continuing to improve. But any time you get a player as good as she is back, it’s going to help. She’s not 100-percent but getting better and stronger.  As a team, we are playing stronger defense.”

Daphne head coach Tereance Pinkney said his team is playing with more faith and confidence in each other and themselves and BCHS provided a good test.

“They played us hard and pushed us,” he said. “They play a lot of zone and mix it up real well. Coach Wills always does a good job with the girls at Baldwin County and they can shoot or get it to the ones that can. They can also run. We had a start on a good lead a couple of times but you can never be too far ahead of  anybody, you know. We just had to keep swinging the ball around looking until late in the game. When I told the girls at halftime it was time we needed to start working into the rim more, it took a little while but then we started to get the ball inside more and score. By scoring underneath, that kind of settled them, more compact on defense, collapsed their defense a little more, and we could stop settling for jump shots and keep giving them a chance at more rebounds. They are a good rebounding team and don’t turn it over much.”

Finals for 3A Area 3, 6A girls are Monday at 6 p.m. at Daphne High. For Area 4, 6A at McGill-Toolen, the girls finals are set for Saturday at 6 p.m.