Newton's Nia McCalphia tries to make her way through Scott Central defenders at the top of the key Thursday night during the Region 4 Class 2A tournament at Union High School.

UNION —  If the level of competition is supposed to increase the further a team goes in the region tournament, then Newton didn’t receive that memo.

Newton defeated Scott Central 60-27 Thursday afternoon at Union High School to advance to Region 4-2A championship, where the Lady Tigers will play Philadelphia Friday night.

“These girls have been playing hard all year,” Newton coach Perry Fletcher said. “They make my job really easy, so I’m excited for them. They’re a young group, and I’m just grateful to have the opportunity to work with them.”

One year after going 17-14 overall and missing out on a chance to play for the championship, Newton rattled off 20 wins against just four losses in the regular season and went a perfect 8-0 in Region 4-2A play. Last year’s struggles have served as this year’s motivation. 

“We had a big downfall — I’m not really going to speak on that much,” Newton’s Nia McCalphia said. 

Zia Shields led the Lady Tigers in scoring with 21 points, Ja’Leah Hickmon added 10 points and McKinley Ware pitched in nine points. 

“We just jell really good,” McCalphia said. “We have chemistry. We’ve just been playing with each other for a long time.”

Newton led 20-5 at the end of the first quarter and extended the lead to 39-12 at halftime. Six different Lady Tigers scored a total of 14 points in the third period to push Newton’s advantage to 53-18 at the end of the quarter. 

“We knew we had to execute and just do our job,” said McCalphia, who was named to the All-Region 4-2A team Thursday, and will be named tournament MVP Friday night. 

Fletcher accepted the Newton job in April after leading the Murrah boys to a 22-5 season last year that ended with a trip to the MHSAA Class 6A championship. Fletcher has hopes of replicating that success at Newton, where he said he has a group of players who are eager to see it happen. 

“This year was a very humbling year,” Fletcher said. “I think what our girls went through last year made them humble and hungry, so I have a great group of kids who have great attitudes, and they want to get better. They’re all coachable and it makes my job real easy.”