Red Bay girls will host Area 16 tournament
By Staff
Mike Self, FCT Sports Editor
Red Bay coach Donnie Roberts was in a good mood Monday afternoon, and not just because his team was riding a seven-game winning streak.
In fact, it was a victory of a different kind that had Roberts smiling.
The Lady Tigers, who tied Mars Hill for first place in Class 2A, Area 16 with a 5-1 record this season, won a coin toss Monday morning that gave them the right to host next week's area tournament.
"Today was a good day," said Roberts, who claimed to have lost the last four or five coin flips he'd been a part of. "I don't know what I did differently, but I'm glad things worked out in our favor."
Red Bay (17-7 overall entering last night's game at Haleyville) will be the No. 1 seed and will face fourth-seeded Cherokee on Thursday, February 8 at 7:30 p.m. Second-seeded Mars Hill will play No. 3 Phil Campbell in the other area semifinal at 6 p.m., and the two winners will square off in the finals at 7 p.m. on Saturday, February 10.
The area champion will host a sub-regional game the following week while the area runner-up will travel, with a berth in the Northwest Regional Tournament at Wallace-Hanceville on the line.
Roberts is well aware that hosting the area tournament doesn't automatically punch his team's ticket for a long postseason journey. Last year, the Lady Tigers won the area tournament on their home floor and then lost to Tanner at home in sub-regional play.
"There are no guarantees this time of year," Roberts said. "Home court advantage means a lot, but we still have to go out and play our best game. You have to be good enough to win no matter where you play."
That will be the rallying cry for many teams in Franklin County next week.
Russellville's boys lost a coin toss Monday morning and will be the No. 4 seed in Class 5A, Area 16. The Golden Tigers (16-6 overall, 1-5 area) must face No. 3 Decatur (20-4, 6-0) on the Red Raiders' home floor on Friday, February 9, in the first round of the area tournament.
Russellville lost at Decatur 75-61 last Friday, but Smith said his team had a much better opportunity to win that game than when they fell to the Red Raiders at home on January 2.
"There's no question, we got a lot more open looks the second time around than we did the first time," Smith said. "We just didn't make enough open shots. I think we made eight threes [on Friday], and realistically we probably should have made at least 12. If we had knocked down some of those open shots, it could have been a whole different ball game."
Second-seeded Muscle Shoals (20-4, 4-2) will face No. 3 Athens in the other Class 5A, Area 16 semifinal.
On the girls side, Russellville will be the No. 4 seed and will face tournament host Athens on Thursday, February 8, at 7:30 p.m.
The boys Class 2A, Area 16 tournament will tip off Friday, February 9, at Mars Hill Bible School. The host Panthers will face fourth-seeded Red Bay (9-12, 1-5 area) at 7:30 p.m., right after second-seeded Cherokee (18-4, 4-2) and third-seeded Phil Campbell (12-13, 2-4) play at 6 p.m.
In Class 1A, Area 16, both the boys and the girls tournaments will be held at Shoals Christian School. Vina's girls, seeded fifth
