DAPHNE, Alabama — The Daphne Lady Trojans combined a clock-burning spread with effective foul-shooting down the stretch to protect a single-digit lead and score a 36-28, 6A Area-3, victory over visiting Baldwin County Tuesday night.

It was Daphne's second-straight league win while the loss was the Lady Tigers’ first in the five-team, all Baldwin area.

“This is a big win for us,” said Daphne head coach Terreance Pinkney. “I think making our foul shots was the main difference. I saw that we couldn’t hit our shots and they were going to sit in a 2-3 zone the rest of the game, so I kind of stalled things a little bit at that point. Then we went into our spread offense and told my girls to stall and make them foul us and send us to the line. We’re still having too many turnovers. If we could limit our turnovers and maintain possession longer, I think we could score more points and have better results at the end of the ballgame. But I’m proud of how they are working. Most of the turnovers are due to youth and inexperience and the way we push the ball, but we're just too small to try and sit and play half-court defense right now. So, we run.”

Daphne broke away from a 17-17 tie in the third period with a 13-7 run to lead 30-24 to start the final eight minutes.

Both teams went cold from the field in the first three minutes of the fourth, but the Lady Trojans made up for it at the line while BCHS — playing with out injured leading scorer and senior leader Nakea McDougal— struggled to get back into the game. The Lady Tigers had led 11-7 after the first quarter.

Baldwin County head coach Robert Wills said his team missed McDougal but worked hard without her to keep their area record intact.

“We miss her from a stamina situation as well as her not scoring for us right now,” he said. “It interrupts the substituting routine I had more than anything and I don’t think we have adjusted to not having her to go to yet. I hope we don’t have to. We’re hoping it’s a temporary thing but we will adjust. I have a lot of good players that understand what we are doing and the younger ones are also getting better. We’ll be alright but we hope Nakea can get back as soon as possible.”

Brinesha Mason made one 3-point shot in the first, second and third quarters, then hit three foul shots to lead Daphne and share the game-high score of 12 points and Kirsten Henton added 10 for DHS.

Baldwin County freshman Denosha Maye also scored the game-high of 12 points while her sister, junior Darnisha Maye added 10 for the Tigers.

Daphne improved to (6-5, 2-0) overall and will host Baker at 6 p.m. on Dec. 18. Baldwin County fell to 4-3, 3-1 overall and will play the Lady Lions at Foley High School in another area showdown at 6 p.m.