Fort Scott senior Hannah Hawkins (23) goes up for two of her nine points as Pittsburg's Stephanie Camp (15) and Theola Kinnard defend during the first half of play in Fort Scott, Kan., Friday night. The Tigers won their Homecoming game, 53-25, over their rival Purple Dragons. (Kenny Felt/Captured Images) [Click to enlarge]

The Tigers (8-1 in the SEK, 9-4 overall) never trailed and broke things open early, going on a 12-2 run to close out the second period and take a 17-6 lead.

The lead grew to 23-6 in the second as Fort Scott's defense didn't allow Pittsburg to get off its first shot until over four minutes had elapsed.

"This is one of those games -- anything can happen -- but once you get a lead, it's nice to maintain it and put the pressure back on the other team to step it up or it's going to get out of hand," Fort Scott head coach Jeff Armstrong said. "The girls played well. Especially defensively. Our shots weren't falling as well as maybe it has been. But when the defense steps up, you don't have to score as much."

Ahead 31-11 at the half, the Tigers just kept things going, with a 10-0 run at the end of the third making it 47-18. After Hannah Hawkins made a pair of free throws to start the fourth, the SEK's 30-point running clock rule went into effect.

Sophomore Jolee Sharp continued to play well against the Purple Dragons. She finished this game just shy of a triple double as she scored 20 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and picked up nine steals. In the Tigers' 55-25 win over Pittsburg on Dec. 4, Sharp had 20 points, 11 boards, seven steals and six assists.

Hawkins added nine points and grabbed nine boards for Fort Scott, which turned the ball over just 18 times to Pittsburg's 31, outrebounded the Dragons 35-21 and made 17 of 23 free throws.

The Tigers shot 37 percent from the floor, making 17 of 46 field-goal attempts, while holding the Dragons to 33 percent on nine of 27. Kristina Willis led Pittsburg with eight points.

Pittsburg fell to 0-9, 1-12 as it lost its 30th straight SEK contest and it's 41st in a row against league opponents, including in-season tournament games, Sub-State tournaments and the non-league regular-season meetings that took place before the league instituted the double round-robin format this season.

The Tigers will head for Altamont Tuesday to take on Labette County. At the time Armstrong was asked about that game, he might not have known that Iola stunned the SEK leaders, 58-52, which boosted the Tigers into a first-place tie with LCHS (8-1, 11-2).

The Grizzlies defeated the Tigers, 62-51, in overtime at Fort Scott on Dec. 7 as 6' 3" senior Kendra Frazier scored 44 points. That was Fort Scott's last defeat.

"It's going to be a battle," Armstrong said. "I guarantee Coach (Kristi) Snider is going to be prepared for us. She's not going to want to see it get to overtime again. She's going to work hard and we're going to do the same. The girls are excited to get another change. They felt like in the first one that they had a really good opportunity. I think it's going to come down to which team will be able to play their style. It's never easy going into Labette but the girls are going to be up for it. We have a game where maybe the pressure's not on us and maybe the girls can relax a little bit. Whatever the outcome is, we'll be satisfied and keep moving on."

JUNIOR VARSITY -- The Fort Scott JV defeated Pittsburg, 51-32. Breianna Jones led the Tigers with 15 points while Jamie Collins added 10.

FRESHMEN -- Fort Scott's freshmen jumped out to a 22-5 lead after one period of play and went on to win, 47-17. Megan McDermed scored 14 points for the Tigers while Kori Allen had 11. Both girls had six rebounds.

PITTSBURG: Willis 3-76 2-2 8, King 0-0 0-0 0, Bernhardt 1-3 2-2 4, White 1-2 1-2 3, Camp 1-4 0-0 3, Kinnard 2-5 0-0 4, Percy 0-0 0-0 0, Zimmerman 1-2 0-0 3, Kloster 0-4 0-0 0, Wolgamott 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 9-27 5-6 25.

FORT SCOTT: Gray 2-7 2-4 8, J.Allen 1-8 1-3 3, Cavin 0-0 0-0 0, Sharp 8-13 4-5 20, Simpson 0-3 2-2 2, Rienbolt 2-6 3-4 7, Hawkins 2-5 5-5 9, Bingesser 1-2 0-0 2, Collins 0-0 0-0 0, Dikeman 1-3 0-0 2, Therwanger 0-0 0-0 0, R.Allen 0-1 0-0 0, Meech 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 17-46 17-23 53.

Pittsburg..... 6 5 7 7 -- 25

Fort Scott.... 17 14 16 6 -- 53

Three-point field goals: Pittsburg 2-6 (Zimmerman 1-2, Camp 1-4), Fort Scott 2-8 (Gray 2-4, J.Allen 0-1, Sharp 0-1, Rienbolt 0-2).

Total fouls: Pittsburg 17, Fort Scott 16. Fouled out: none. Technical fouls: none.

Rebounds: Pittsburg 21 (Willis 8), Fort Scott 35 (Sharp 10). Assists: Pittsburg46 (Bernhardt 2), Fort Scott 8 (J.Allen 3). Turnovers: Pittsburg 31, Fort Scott 17. Steals: Pittsburg 6 (Bernhardt 3), Fort Scott 23 (Sharp 9). Blocked shots: Pittsburg 2 (Camp, Kinnard), Fort Scott none.