It was in the upper 60s outside, but the Demopolis High School Lady Tigers had a cold night from the floor in the third quarter, hitting only one of their 12 shots from the field, falling to Class 5A Area 5 rival Selma 41-37 Friday night.

The Lady Saints (14-3 overall, 2-1 5A Area 5) were 6-for-15 from the field in the first quarter, although DHS (5-2, 2-1) out-rebounded Selma 12-8 in that period.

Demopolis opened the scoring when Shadijah Moore and Jocelyn Lawson each hit jumpers to give the Lady Tigers a quick 4-0 lead. Selma scored the next seven points before DHS retook the lead at 8-7 on a layup by Aleshia Arnold with 4:24 left in the first quarter, pushing that to 11-7 on a three from Lawson.

The Lady Saints scored the last 10 points of the quarter, going 4-for-5 over the last 3-1/2 minutes to close the period with a 17-11 lead.

Demopolis rallied in the second quarter, going 6-for-10 from the free-throw line in that period. The Lady Tigers went on a 10-0 run, erasing a 22-13 deficit and taking a 23-22 lead when Shay Smith made two free throws, then sank one of two technical-foul free throws with 2:34 left in the half. The Lady Saints were 1-for-7 over the last six minutes of the quarter.

It was that third quarter that sank the Lady Tigers, as Selma had a 37-29 lead at the end of that period, but Demopolis made a comeback effort, going 4-for-8 from the field in the fourth quarter and hold the Lady Saints to only four points in the quarter, but DHS couldn’t muster the offense to overcome the Selma lead, falling 41-37.

“We played them earlier in the year, so they had a pretty good idea of what we were going to do,” said DHS head coach Tony Pittman. “We did play kind of soft in the middle a lot, and they tended to get in the middle of our defense and create some shots.

“I feel like the reason we lost the ball game was missing simple layups. In a tight ball game like this one, you can’t afford to miss those.

“I felt like we executed pretty good,” he said. “We had a very good shot selection, and we were able to knock some shots down, but again, when you get the ball, you’ve got to be able to put it in, and we just didn’t do that tonight.”

Demopolis was led by Aleshia Arnold, who had 10 points and nine rebounds, seven on the defensive end. Smith added eight points and six rebounds, while Lawson had seven points and Moore had six, going 4-for-4 from the line.

Selma was paced by Kaneshia Strong, who had 12 points on 5-for-7 shooting from the field. Ashley Groves added nine points, eight steals and five rebounds, while Keisha Moore had eight points and four steals. Breanna Smith had seven points and seven rebounds, while Mildrea Harris had six boards.

Selma avenged a buzzer-beating Demopolis win, 43-42, on the Lady Saints’ home floor on Dec. 5.

SELMA (41)—Kanesha Strong 5-7 2-7 12, Keisha Moore 4-9 0-1 8, Ashley Groves 3-11 3-6 9, Jameneshia Caver 0-0 1-2 1, Breanna Smith 3-5 1-2 7, Jonisha Jackson 0-3 0-0 0, Mildrea Harris 2-4 0-2 4. Total 17-39 7-20 41.

Rebounds—27 (B.Smith 7). Assist—5 (Strong 2). Steals—16 (Groves 8).

DEMOPOLIS (37)—Aleshia Arnold 4-7 2-4 10, Valissa Sams 2-7 0-1 4, Shay Smith 2-4 4-5 8, Jocelyn Lawson 3-12 0-0 7, Shadijah Moore 1-7 4-4 6, Breanna Jones 1-2 0-0 2. Total 13-39 10-14 37.

Rebounds—32 (Arnold 9). Assists—9 (Sams 4). Steals—6 (Sams 3).