After a string of three wins, the Gulf Breeze Dolphins's good fortune finally ran out on Tuesday. They fell just short of Niceville by a score of 56-53. The game was a 25-25 toss-up at halftime, but Gulf Breeze was outscored by Niceville in the second.
Gulf Breeze lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Piper Tieman, who dropped a double-double on 21 points and 12 rebounds. That's the first time this season that Tieman scored 15 or more points. The team also got some help courtesy of Lila Jacobs, who scored 15 points along with nine rebounds and four steals.
Niceville's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Anna Kimball led the charge by scoring 20 points along with five rebounds and three blocks. Another player making a difference was Kiyah Hatcher, who dropped a double-double on 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Gulf Breeze's loss ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 12-5. As for Niceville, they pushed their record up to 14-4 with that victory, which was their sixth straight on the road.
Both squads will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Gulf Breeze will square off against Crestview at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. Hopefully Crestview focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 12 last Monday. As for Niceville, Niceville and Pace will face off at 6:30 p.m. on January 18th without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Hopefully Pace focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 23 on Tuesday.