woodville — The Jefferson County Lady Tigers are feeling confident, and head coach Flora McKnight is too.

“They control their own destiny,” McKnight said. “If they work hard, success is coming. If they stay together, it is going to be a great outcome.”

Jefferson County continued their roll in district play Friday night going to Wilkinson County and taking down the Lady Wildcats, 53-16.

“We take things one day at a time,” McKnight said. “We are working hard in practice, and those young ladies are getting after it every day. We preach defense, rebounding and playing together.”

The Lady Tiger defense was suffocating in the game, holding Wilkinson County to just two second half points.

“What was really working was that everybody played their role and stayed with their man,” Jefferson County player Ashley Brinkley said. “Once you play defense, offense just comes to you.”

Jefferson County jumped out to an early lead in the first quarter, putting up 21 points, led by Antrell Gales and Diamond Smith down low.

Gales finished the game with 10 points and four of Smith’s five points came in the opening quarter.

“Antrell is just a freshman, we just don’t know how great she will end up being,” McKnight said. “Diamond is a junior, and she is coming around.”

Wilkinson County was forced to work with a young and inexperienced team, and after point guard Erielle Jackson went down with an injury forcing her to miss the rest of the game, the wheels fell off for the Lady Wildcats.

“I have one junior, five sophomores, four freshmen and moved up three eighth graders,” Wilkinson County head coach Trimeka Gaines said. “We are a really young team and we have had a lot of injuries and things like that. We just weren’t able to maintain tonight.”

But Gaines is still optimistic about the future at Wilkinson County.

“I feel we have a great future ahead,” Gaines said. “I think we will have a comeback in the years to come. We should be back in full force like we were.”

Rachel Shelvy led all scores with 12 points for the Lady Tigers, while Katie Hull was the leading scorer for Wilkinson County with six.

With the win, Jefferson County remains unbeaten in district play at 4-0.