HOWELL’S COVE - The Talladega County Central Fighting Tigers extended their area winning streak to 23 games, as they cruised past Fayetteville 66-28 on Monday night.

“Tonight was good win,” TC Central head coach Cornelius Brown said. “Any time that you win an area game that is good. Area games position you to be where you want to be at the end of the season in late January, early February to be in the position to win the area regular season, so you can host the area tournament.

“It is a good win; any win is a good win, but this is especially a good win because it is one step towards our goal, which is winning the area. We are now 23-0 in the area; it has been two years since we lost an area game. We take a lot pride in what we are able to do against people in the same classification.”

The Fighting Tigers’ (1-1, 1-0) defensive pressure was too much for the Wolves to handle in the first quarter. TC Central scored six points off of turnovers, as they took a 13-7 lead into the second quarter.

“We got behind and it seemed like the breaks were not going our way,” Fayetteville head coach Doug Warren said. ”We have a long way to go. I was proud of our guys; we didn’t quit. When times get tough you have to have your guys step up. We never quit and I was proud of my guys for that.”

TC Central’s defense shut down Fayetteville in the second quarter as they only allowed two points. The Fighting Tigers went on a 13-2 run to give TC Central a 27-9 lead going into half time. Tyree Garrett scored five of his 14 points in the second quarter.

“One of the things that we have been emphasizing on in practice is our defensive intensity and our defensive effort,” Brown said. “It has not been there in the past couple of weeks so we really wanted to emphasize that in practice. We even put in some competition drills in practice because we were not competing the way TC basketball teams usually compete, so we definitely had to turn that around.”

Cameron Duncan got things going for the Fighting Tigers in the third quarter.

Duncan scored seven of his 15 points in a 13-0 run to give the Fighting Tigers a 45-11 lead with 2:25 left in the third quarter.

Junior Terrell Garrett scored 10 of his game high 22 points in the fourth quarter.

The Wolves host Faith Christian on Friday at 7 p.m. The Fighting Tigers travel to take on Vincent on Thursday at 7 p.m.