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The Lady Dragons came out breathing fire, but it was the Lady Lions who came roaring back in registering a 63-47 victory in a District 15-5A girls basketball game on Tuesday at the Lions Den on the Tyler High School campus.

It was the Lady Lions’ 33rd consecutive district win, spanning over three seasons. Tyler is 29-5 overall and 15-0 in league play. Nacogdoches drops to 19-10 and 8-6.

It was also Senior Night as Tyler High honored six — Kalyse Buffin, Amori Gee, LaTajia Hambrick, Bra’Shia Miller, Mairany Olivarez and MaKayla Taylor — who played their final regular season home game. The six seniors have just district losses in the last three seasons.

After the Lady Lions took a 5-0 lead, Nacogdoches scored the next 12 points. Eventually, the Lady Dragons led 17-12 at the end of the first quarter. The Black & Gold hit five of six 3-point attempts — three by sophomore Hope Lind and one each from seniors Jassidy Fletcher and Za’ryiah Williams.

Tyler then got going in the second period with Buffin, a four-year varsity starter, scoring 12 points to power the Lady Lions to a 32-27 lead.

In the second half, the Blue & White outscored the Lady Dragons 31-20.

Buffin led the Lady Lions with 23 points, including four 3-pointers while hitting 7 of 8 free throw attempts.

Lind led Nacogdoches with 17 points.

Others scoring for Tyler were Bralyah Miller (14), Hambrick (12), Taylor (6), Jer’Miya Rice (4) and Ameri Goss (4).

Hambrick had two 3-pointers.

Taylor led in rebounds with 11, followed by Bralyah Miller (8) and Buffin (6).

Buffin and Hambrick each had five steals with Bralyah Miller adding four.

Others scoring for the Lady Dragons Fletcher (11), Sha’Corrie Caldwell (9), Williams (7), Rodashia Robertson (1), Kenndall Cross (1) and Zariyya Swindle (1).

Tyler was 7 of 30 from 3-point and 9 of 12 from the free throw line.

Nacogdoches was 8 of 18 from long distance and 13 of 26 from the charity stripe.

The Lady Lions return to play on Feb. 4, traveling to Hallsville for their final district contest. Tipoff is set for 6:15 p.m.

The Lady Dragons play host to Hallsville on Friday for a 6:15 tip.

LIONS TALES: A recording of the national anthem went silent, but Tyler Coach Bobby Reynolds came to the rescue. He grabbed the microphone and started singing The Star{span}-Spangled Banner while encouraging the crowd to join in. It was a patriotic moment as the fans sang loudly.

— Hicks can be reached at phicks@tylerpaper.com