In the girls game, senior forward Kiana Ford connected on a 3-pointer from the corner with 11 seconds remaining, lifting the host Lady Panthers to a 40-38 win.
Collinsville's boys used a 25-2 run in the second quarter to post a 66-41 victory over Spring Garden in the nightcap.
"I kind of got word that (former Collinsville and current JSU football player) Robert Gray, his girlfriend Sam, my kids and wife had something planned, but I was trying to tell them this is Spring Garden," Tidmore said. "I told both teams I appreciated the signs (entering the locker room), but let's concentrate on playing."
It took a while for both girls teams to get going. A pair of buckets by eighth-grade guard Kendria Moore gave Collinsville (11-3, 4-1) a 4-3 lead at the end of the first quarter. Collinsville stretch its lead to 21-16 at halftime, but ninth-ranked Spring Garden (9-8, 4-1) rallied to trail only 29-28 at the end of the third quarter.
The visiting Lady Panthers had their chances down the stretch to take the win. Sophomore guard Darian Gaines, who suffered a blow to the head diving after a loose ball in the second quarter, took things on her shoulders to keep Spring Garden within striking distance. She buried a 3-pointer with 1:45 to go, connected on a pair of free throws with 51.5 seconds remaining, and sank a shot with 39.3 ticks on the clock to give Spring Garden a 38-37 lead.
That set the stage for Ford's game-winning trey.
"Kiana is pretty deadly when her feet are set. She's got such good touch," Tidmore said. "We wanted to try and stretch her. We thought they may want to run with her because of that and we could get a backdoor off of it, and they executed it real well. That was a big play. I was proud she hit the shot. I think she was excited."
Spring Garden had one last chance, but a desperation shot by senior forward Tori Pierce fell short of the mark.
"We didn't play good enough to win even if we would have pulled it out," Spring Garden coach Ricky Austin said. "They tried to give it to us, but we didn't want to take it. Their player made a play when it was time to do it. You've got to give them credit. They battled to the end and put themselves in position. They did the things they needed to to get that last-second shot. They produced, and we sat there and watched it. They wanted the game more and played until the horn went off. That was the difference in the game."
Austin praised the effort of Gaines, who finished with 11 points and seven rebounds. All of her points came in the second half.
"She did some things poorly, but I kept thinking she's going to knock her shot down eventually. That's the kind of confidence I have in her," Austin said. "Darian's a tough kid. I asked her if she was OK (following her injury), and she said 'I want to play.' I knew she was still hurt, but that's the kind of kid she is.
"The whole practice plan for us all week was to attack with our big girls posting and our guards penetrating. Darian probably has the least ability of the people we have who can drive, but she was the only one we had out of our guards who would drive. She found a way to get in there and got to the free-throw line. She's the only one I thought played tough enough."
Collinsville senior guard Christy Cox led all scorers with 18 points, including four 3-pointers. She also pulled down four rebounds. Ford and Moore both contributed seven points, with Moore also coming away with eight rebounds. Savannah Boyles added five points and Brittney Tidmore finished with seven assists and six boards.
Haley Motes led Spring Garden with 13 points, including three of her team's eight treys. She also had five rebounds. Pierce posted six points on a pair of 3-pointers, had six steals and three boards. Tykeah Leek finished with five points and 13 rebounds.
In the boys game, third-ranked Collinsville (14-1, 5-0) connected on 11 3-pointers, including five in the second quarter. Senior forward Deshawn Moore led the way with 19 points, including a pair of treys, to go along with five rebounds, two blocks and two steals.
Senior guard David Hernandez contributed 14 points, including four 3-pointers. Senior forward Davey Posey posted 11 points, four rebounds and four steals. Senior guard C.J. Jones tallied nine points (all on 3-pointers), four assists and three steals. Tanner Nelson came off the bench and connected on a pair of 3-pointers to finish with six points.
"We work on (3-point shooting) a lot," Tidmore said. "We were a good shooting team a couple of years ago, then last year we struggled. This year, we made it an issue and kind of took it personally. We just don't want to shoot a bunch of them because we feel like we can get inside a lot with the athletes we have. They stepped into them tonight.
"I thought our second quarter was tremendous. We really got after it."
Austin agreed that the second quarter was the difference in the game.
"Our turnovers turned into their points," he said. "We turned it over about nine straight trips. They're very good defensively. They can defend everybody hard. They really expose our weaknesses. Bottom line is they're just better than us.
"We were down 16-14 (at the end of the first quarter), and all they did was go to a 2-3 trap. We had a plan for that, but it didn't look like we'd seen any type of pressure like that before. It looked like we got scared."
Josh Hale led Spring Garden with 13 points. In his first game back from a leg injury suffered two weeks ago, Jake Grogan connected on six of his seven shot attempts and finished with 12 points. He also grabbed six rebounds. Logan Whorton and Will Westbrook both had six points, with Westbrook also coming away with nine boards.
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