Sicily Island High School (22-5, 9-0) asserted its dominance Tuesday night by topping Oak Grove, 76-44, and adding to its winning record.

The Tigers, who entered the game ranked No. 3 in LHSAA Class 1A, outscored Oak Grove in the second half 43-22 to gain their comfortable lead, ultimately giving them the victory.

“In the third quarter, we kind of exploded and got that lead and took off from there,” Sicily Island coach Curtis Shavers said.

Before they took control down the stretch, the Tigers struggled coming out of the locker room. The game started with a 7-0 run for Oak Grove, and Sicily Island also lost its 15-8 first quarter lead for about two and a half minutes in the second period.

“In the first half, they played like they were sleepwalking,” Shavers said. “It just took time for them to get into the game and get started. We went in at halftime and talked about nobody giving us anything.”

Once the gears clicked into place, Devion Dunbar led the Tigers with 26 points. Dunbar was solid throughout the game, and added to his team’s strength by sinking two 3-pointers on back-to-back plays to open the fourth period.

Dunbar also credited the big pull-away to communication on the opposite side of the ball.

“We played much better defense in the second half,” he said. ”We were talking more.”

Additional help came from Sicily Island’s other four starters with Jameron Tolliver scoring 15, Tyreke Tolliver with 13 and Jim Atkins adding 8 points of his own.

“I think they just realized that it was time to start playing ball,” Shavers said.

The core five will need to remain sharp moving forward as the Tigers, now ranked No. 2, are set to take on now No. 3 ranked Delhi Charter on the road Friday.

“We need to keep playing how we are playing and play even better,” Dunbar said.

“We are at the top right now, and everybody is looking to knock us off,” Shavers said. “We need to go out here and take care of our own business. The desire and the will to want to win are going to get us through.”

Oak Grove (girls) 56, 

Sicily Island 28

The Lady Tigers (1-20) just couldn’t keep up as they fell in girls action, 56-28.

Sicily Island was down 18 points at the break, 30-12, and had a hard time recovering.

Leading the efforts, however, were Janisha Smith with 17 points and Aniyah Brown who finished with 11.