For a while Tuesday night it appeared as though the Alba Volunteer Fire Department was going to be needed to extinguish burning nets at the Alba-Golden High School gymnasium as the Lady Panthers opened their 2016-2017 campaign with a shocking 86-4 victory over the Cumberland Academy Lady Knights from Tyler.

Coach Blake Hamrick’s hot shooting Lady Panthers scorched the nets for 39 points in the opening quarter with seniors Grace Bizzell popping the nets for 12 points and Shelby Wright pouring in 10 more, meanwhile Thomas hit a three-pointer for Cumberland’s only points of the period. In fact, she sank one free throw in the second period to account for all the Lady Knight points in the game as they failed to hit the hoop at all in the final two quarters.

After taking that 39-4 first quarter lead, the Lady Panthers saw lots of substituting in the second quarter, but still managed to pull their lead up to 59 points with the tally resting at 63-4 at the intermission.

Turnovers were a major problem for the Lady Knights from start to finish with the ever-hustling Lady Panther defense swiping the ball almost at will throughout the game.

“I was a little surprised that our girls dominated so much,” Hamrick commented after the game.

“We really couldn’t tell much about our team from this game. We kind of played down to the competition, but we will get tested starting Thursday when we play in the Forney tournament. There are a lot of really good teams going to be playing there,” Hamrick said.

Tuesday night’s game will be the Alba-Golden girls’ only home appearance until they host Edgewood Dec. 13 to open district play.

When all the “smoke” had cleared from the nets Tuesday night 12 girls on the Alba-Golden roster has logged plenty of playing time and four of them scored in double figures. It was obvious that more Lady Panthers could have joined the double-digit club had they not slowed the game down in the second half. After scoring 39 in the first quarter and 24 in the second, they only put in 19 in the third quarter and four in the final stanza.

Wright, who had 18 points at the half, led all scorers with 22 points, Bizzzell collected 17, Briana Weissert pitched in 13, and Morgan wound up with 12.

The Lady Panthers carried their momentum from the lopsided win and headed down the road for the Forney Invitational Basketball Tournament. The Lady Panthers went 4-2 in the tournament.

Alba-Golden opened the tournament Thursday with a 50-43 win over the Poteet Lady Aggies but dropped the second game of the day 61-35 to the Red Oak Lady Hawks. Friday brought two more games and another split. The Lady Panthers fell to the Hallsville Lady Bobcats 50-44 and defeated the Lake Highlands Lady Cats 41-39.

The last day of the tournament Saturday brought two wins for the Lady Panthers. Alba-Golden defeated the South Oak Cliff Lady Bears 58-54 and the Pearce Lady Mustangs 49-29.

The Lady Panthers (5-2) return to action Tuesday to take on the Bells Lady Panthers.