The Morgan Academy Lady Senators held the lead for most of the first half, but the Tuscaloosa Academy Lady Knights took control and pulled away for a 55-44 win on Tuesday at Morgan.

Jennifer Moore, head girls basketball coach of Morgan Academy (2-3), said the Lady Senators just couldn’t get their shots to fall in the second half.

“We just went cold. We couldn’t hit anything and they started hitting everything,” Moore said. “Layups killed us. We couldn’t get layups to fall in the last half of the ball game, and that’s very important. We got in foul trouble early, which also hurt us.”

Kendall Veach hit a 3-pointer late in the second half to extend Morgan’s lead to 27-23, but the Lady Knights cut the lead to 27-26 at halftime in a first half where Morgan hadn’t trailed since about six minutes left in the first quarter.

The Lady Knights captured the lead when Krissy Pruit hit a jump shot to make it 28-27 with 7:48 left in the third quarter.

Morgan regained the lead, as Casey Baggett hit a mid-range shot to make it 29-28 with 6:46 left in the third.

Pruit responded for Tuscaloosa by hitting a 3-pointer to give the Lady Knights a 31-29 lead, but Veach hit a jumper that tied the game at 31-31.

Pruit hit another three and teammate Hallie Harrison hit a shot under the basket that made it 36-31, and while Baggett scored on a layup that narrowed it to 36-33 with 4:43 left in the third, the Lady Knights answered back by going on an 11-1 run that saw them up 47-34 at the end of the quarter, as the Lady Senators never recovered.

Adddison Harrison and Pruit led Tuscaloosa with 13 points each, while Veach led Morgan with 25 points and Baggett had 11 points.