Defensively, Morgan hung with No. 1 Tuscaloosa Academy in a 48-26 loss in the championship of the AISA Class AAA, Region 2 championship on Saturday.

Unfortunately for the Senators, the offense just was not there.

“That’s three good, hard defensive games we’ve played in three nights,” said Morgan coach Lee Tate. “Tonight, we just didn’t score.”

The 10-6 score at the end of the first period was indicative of a game in which the first 10 minutes were dominated by defense before the Knights got untracked.

Trailing 11-10, Tyler Cannon hit a 3-pointer to trigger a 13-2 second quarter run that put Tuscaloosa ahead 23-13 with 1:21 left in the half. A Forrest Hughes jump shot made it 23-15 at the half.

The Senators trimmed the deficit to five points three times in the third quarter before a costly foul marred a productive defensive stand.

An Alton Poellnitz 3-point play made it 31-23 with 2:18 left in the period. On the Knights next possession, they stalled, holding the ball until the final seconds, before Poellnitz was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 3.8 seconds left. He made to 2-of-3 to push the lead back to 10 points headed into the final period.

“You could see some of the air come out of them when they fouled him because they had done a good job defensively,” said Tuscaloosa coach Josh Golden. “You could see they were a little deflated after that.”

Tuscaloosa held the Senators to three fourth quarter points, and secured the region championship with a 9-0 run to close the game.

Poellnitz and Tevin Moore led the Knights with 12 points apiece.

Sam Tate led Morgan with 11 points and Heath Harrelson added five.