By Bart Moss
For the FCT

The road to the state tournament began this week with the area tournaments. The tournament games began Monday night with the first round of the girls area tournaments. Russellville girls, Tharptown girls and Vina girls were all eliminated from their respective areas, while Phil Campbell defeated Sulligent to advance to the finals. Most boys area tournaments begin tonight.
Franklin County has teams involved in three-team, four-team and five-team areas so the scheduling is not uniform. Teams who make the finals of their area tournaments are guaranteed a spot in the sub-region games to be played early next week. The winner of the area tournaments will host a sub-region game. The runner-up in the area tournaments will have to travel to play their sub-region game. Girls sub-region games will be Feb. 15 at 7 p.m. Boys sub-region games will be Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. The winners of the sub-region games will advance to the Northwest Regional Tournament at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville.
Below are the games involving Franklin County teams to played this week:
Girls
1A Area 15 at Hackleburg
Belgreen versus Phillips Feb. 10 at 7 p.m.
Finals Feb. 12 at 6 p.m.
2A Area 16 at Red Bay
Phil Campbell vs. Red Bay in the Finals Feb. 11 at 7 p.m.
Boys
1A Area 15 at Covenant Christian
Vina versus Belgreen Feb. 9 at 6 p.m.
Vina/Belgreen versus Covenant Christian Feb. 11 at 5:30 p.m.
Finals Feb. 13 at 7 p.m.
2A Area 15 at Phil Campbell
Red Bay versus Sulligent Feb. 9 at 7 p.m.
Finals: Red Bay/Sulligent versus PCHS Feb. 12 at 7 p.m.
2A Area 16 at Tharptown
Tharptown versus Cherokee Feb. 9 at 6 p.m.
Finals Feb. 12 at 7 p.m.
5A Area 14 at Lawrence County
Russellville versus Lawrence County Feb. 10 at 5 p.m.
Finals Feb. 12 at 7 p.m.