When Africa Tyler decided to take over the game for Southside Saturday night, Dallas County couldn’t find an answer to slow her down.

The Panthers used Tyler’s 22 points and 13 rebounds to take down the Hornets 42-27 to win the class AAAA area 6 final.

“(Tyler) is really playing hard right now,” Southside coach April O’Neil said. “We worked hard on the mental part of her game and it is something that has really progressed. I’m just really proud of her right now.”

Tyler, who was named the tournament’s most valuable player, scored 8 of the 11 points for the Panthers in the first quarter, but Southside couldn’t pull away from the Hornets and the first quarter ended tied.

Then Southside really turned up the pressure on defense, holding Dallas County to only 12 points over the next two quarters to take a 27-21 lead heading into the fourth.

That was when Tyler became too much to handle, scoring 10 points to give the Panthers the breathing space it needed.

“They just seemed to get down the floor quicker than we did,” Hornet coach Anthony Harris said. I don’t feel like our girls played all that bad, but a lot of our problems tonight were self-inflicted. I guess Southside just wanted it a little more tonight.”

Now preparation for both teams turns to Thursday night.

“That’s the positive,” said Harris. “We get to reset and play another game. We aren’t done yet so we are going to get back in the gym and work hard.”

The teams will play Thursday evening with Southside hosting Dadeville and Dallas County traveling to Beauregard for the class AAAA sub-regionals.

“We played well tonight,” said O’Neil. “But moving forward we are going to have to make adjustments sooner than we did tonight if we want to move forward. For tonight though, I’m just really proud of our girls.”