Red Bay sweeps Winfield
J.R. Tidwell/FCT Red Bay’s Michael Ramirez (1) goes around a Winfield defender before driving the lane for a layup Monday night.
RED BAY — The Red Bay Tigers and Lady Tigers both avenged a loss Monday night in game against the Winfield Pirates.
Despite winning against the Lady Pirates earlier this season, the Lady Tigers once again got retribution for a rare loss last year to 3A Winfield with a 58-30 victory.
The Tigers were defeated by 23 points when they travelled to Winfield earlier this season, but Red Bay picked up a 3-point win at 46-43 in the return game.
The Lady Tigers started the night with a 4-0 lead over the Lady Pirates. Winfield battled back to make it 4-4, but Red Bay then commenced a 14-0 run that spanned most of the first quarter and into the early goings of the second.
“They’ve got a good team,” Red Bay head coach Donnie Roberts said. “We played our best game of the year so far tonight.”
Winfield narrowed the gap a little to 26-15 at halftime, but the Lady Pirates would never have the lead in this one.
Red Bay’s potent defense held Winfield at bay while the offense continued to widen the gap throughout the third and fourth quarter.
With 5:00 showing on the clock in the fourth the Lady Tigers had a 50-27 advantage, and most of the bench got playing time in the later minutes.
Even with subs in the Lady Tigers came a hairsbreadth from going up by 30 points and forcing a running clock, but the final margin of victory for Red Bay would stand at 28 by game’s end.
“It feels good to get this win,” Roberts said. “Up until now we haven’t played our best competition, and any time you play good competition you improve.”
Two eighth graders, Allie Kennedy and Darby Madden, had 16 and 12 points respectively in the game, showing off some of Red Bay’s young talent.
Kasey Sparks had 14 points and Lexy Lindsey totaled 8. Also scoring for Red Bay were: Elizabeth Wooten (4), Alaina Hester (3), Danielle Hastings (2) and Carlee Berry (1).
The match-up between the varsity boys’ teams in the nightcap would prove to be a much closer game.
Red Bay got out to an early 8-point lead, but Winfield narrowed the gap to four at 15-11 by the end of the first.
The Pirates tied the game at 15-15 less than two minutes into the first quarter and road that momentum to a 24-23 lead at intermission.
The Tigers once again took the lead at 31-30 at the 3:50 mark of the third period and had a 35-30 advantage going into the fourth.
Red Bay managed to hold onto the lead for most of the fourth quarter, but Winfield did manage to tie it up three times in the final eight minutes.
Each time though the Tigers managed to put more points on the board, and Red Bay earned their 3-point win over the larger school.
“This is a good win for us,” Red Bay head coach Greg Cash said. We’ve won three of our last four, and they were all grind-out games like this one.”
One negative that hampered Red Bay during all of its success on the gridiron last season was a lack of practice time for the basketball team.
“Games are a part of our practice and conditioning time,” Cash said. “We’re not quite there yet, but we’re getting our legs underneath us. We’re also hitting shots now that we didn’t at the first of the season. We played well on defense, and it wasn’t there night shooting.”
All five starters for Red Bay made the score sheet in the game, but they were the only five to do so. Levi Humphres led the charge with 17 points, Tra Elliott had 9, Michael Ramirez added 8, Barry Reach totaled 7 and Austin Thorn contributed 3.
