Tim Miller called his Hazel Green girls basketball team “unique.”

The 20 coaches whose teams have lost to the Trojans thus far this season would probably call them “dominating” or “overwhelming” or “a blitzkrieg.”

Top-ranked Hazel Green has outscored its opponents 68.25 to 30.3 this season. Six times the Trojans have scored more than 70 points – with a 93-26 win over Miller Career Academy of Tennessee, an 88-32 win over Cullman and an 82-30 victory over Pine Forest, Fla.

The reason this team is unique to Miller? It’s how the young women have approached the ever-lengthening winning streak. The Trojans haven’t lost since Dec. 19, 2020, two state championships ago. Hazel Green holds the second-longest winning streak in Alabama High School Athletic Association history at 79 headed into a home game on Friday against Lee-Huntsville.

“This team has been unique,” Miller said. “They don’t get caught up in that stuff. We don’t talk about any streaks. We have not mentioned it yet. I don’t think this team is concerned about that.

“Our team is focused on the outcome at the end of the season. That’s what their goal is. They still approach each practice looking to see ‘How am I going to get better today?’ They are preparing for that next opponent.”

The streak is seven wins away from tying Lauderdale County for the most consecutive wins in the AHSAA at 86. The Tigers’ streak ran from 2013 to 2015. Hazel Green already has tied Lauderdale County’s other record of note – most consecutive state championships at five, along with Pisgah (which also won its fifth last season).

The longest boys’ winning streak was set from 1943-47 by A.G. Parrish of Selma at 73 games. Birmingham’s Parker is second with 68.

The thing the Hazel Green girls “aren’t talking about” almost ended on Saturday as the Trojans rallied to edge River Ridge, Ga., 50-48 in the She Got Game Classic in metro Atlanta. Hazel Green trailed throughout before outscoring the Knights 14-10 in the final quarter for the win.

“It was a back-and-forth game and one where who was going to get the stops and who was going to score on four or five possessions,” Miller said of the contest that included the use of a shot clock. “It was a good game for us. We found a way to win the basketball game at the end. We fought through a lot of adversity.”

The 2-point win was the closest game Hazel Green has faced since the beginning of the winning streak. Twice in December 2021 the Trojans won 4-point games, over IMG Academy and The Webb School of Bell Buckle, Tenn. The closest any in-state school has come to beating the Trojans in this 79-game run by Carver-Montgomery – twice in the 2020-21 season, including a 49-41 Hazel Green victory in the state championship game. On Dec. 29, 2020, Hazel Green beat Carver by 9, 60-51.

After last week’s scare, Miller – who has a 706-98 record in 23 seasons as a head coach, 320-27 in 10 at Hazel Green – said he told his players that the narrow win was just what they needed.

“We talked about that it was good that we fought through and found a way to win,” he said. “We talked about how we needed games like that for competition. These 40- or 50-point wins aren’t doing us any good.

“We have enough tough games on the schedule this year – we’ve got Sparkman next week, we go to Hoover at the end of the month, we have to play Bob Jones. Good Hope is coming in and they’ve got a good team. We player Central-Tuscaloosa in Hoover at the MLK event. The second half of our season is going to be tougher than the first half.”

The Trojans’ run this season has come after losing the first Miss Basketball ever from Hazel Green in Samiya Steele. The 5-foot-8 senior guard averaged 17.3 points a game last season, her second straight as an All-State selection, who is now a freshman who has started every game for Alabama State.

“We had to make up Samiya’s points from last year,” Miller said. “We’ve found ways to do that with other players getting more shots. Leah Brooks has really stepped up for us this year and played a bigger role. She’s been a good factor for us.

“Leah and Sydney have been our leaders on the floor. Zyriah Price, who transferred from Buckhorn and didn’t play the second half of the season last year, has made a difference.”

Brooks, a 6-2 junior University of Alabama commitment, is averaging 14.9 points and 8.9 rebounds per game. Price, a 6-foot junior with offers from South Alabama and Alabama A&M, is scoring 14.3 points a game. Montevallo commitment Nyla Collier, a 5-9 senior, scores 10 points a game and averages 3.1 steals and 2.1 assists. Seniors Sydney Steward and Jaden Toney score 8.6 points each and both are averaging just over 5 assists per game. Junior Amiya Redus scores 7.7 points a game and averages 1.9 assists and 1.3 steals per outing.