Keith continued Tuesday what has become a holiday tradition — winning the Dallas County Christmas Tournament.

The Lady Bears (10-4) opened up an early lead against R.C. Hatch and didn’t look back in a 57-46 win at Wallace Community College Selma. It was the second straight time Keith had met R.C. Hatch in the finale of the holiday championship. Last year the Lady Bears won 47-35. This year the scoreboard showed it as being closer, but the outcome never appeared in doubt after a strong start from Keith.

“When they had an opportunity to play for the championship, that motivated them to play a little bit harder,” Keith head coach Cecil Williams said.

The Lady Bears didn’t need many minutes out of their starters in a first round win over Dallas County Monday.

Leading scorer Harriet Winchester scored only two points in that game in limited minutes, but came out firing on all cylinders Tuesday. She put up nine points in the opening quarter on her way to a game-high 24 points.

Keith led 14-2 in the opening minutes, putting the Lady Bobcats in a hole they never dug themselves out of.

“That’s something we have been wanting to work on because the last couple of games we had, we had a slow start,” Williams said. “We wanted to push the ball more in transition. With us pushing the ball more, it gives us more of an opportunity to score.”