Russellville, Red Bay face tough challenges today at Wallace State
By Staff
Scot Beard
HANCEVILLE – Only two teams from Franklin County – the girls squads from Russellville and Red Bay – survived the area tournaments and sub-regional round of the playoffs to reach the Northwest Regional Tournament.
The Russellville girls have the most players with varsity experience, but none of the current players have been to the regional tournament before.
Red Bay has players who have been to the regional tournament, but is more inexperienced at the varsity level.
Both squads face tough challenges when they walk on the court at Wallace State in Hanceville today.
The Lady Golden Tigers will play Brewer, the defending Class 5A state runner-up, at 9 a.m. this morning while Red Bay with play Clements, the No.-2 team in Class 2A, tonight at 6p.m.
Russellville coach James Bostick said the early start should not be too much of a problem for his team because they usually practice in the morning.
He said he was not too worried about his team playing in the atmosphere at Wallace State, which tends to intimidate some teams that have not played there before.
"The floor is a little bit longer," Bostick said. "But it is just another game. Hopefully they can go out and have fun."
Brewer is a regular at Wallace State, having played there just about every year since the early 1990s. The Lady Patriots have had little success there, as last season was the first time the program won the regional tournament and advanced to the state tourney in Birmingham.
Brewer lost several players from last year's squad and six of the 10 players on the roster are sophomores. They have two seniors and one junior.
Russellville and Brewer have three opponents from this season in common – Athens, Hartselle and West Morgan.
The Lady Golden Tigers were 3-0 against Hartselle and 0-1 against West Morgan while Brewer was 1-2 against Hartselle and 0-1 against West Morgan.
Brewer swept a pair of games against Athens while Russellville split the series 1-1.
If Russellville wins, the Lady Golden Tigers will advance to play the winner of the Hartselle-Fairfield game Friday.
Red Bay will have a distinct size and experience disadvantage against Clements.
Clements has been building its team for several seasons, and although many of the players are still underclassmen, they have plenty of experience at the varsity level.
Daneshia Malone and Jordan Beggs give the Lady Colts a pair of six-footers to dominate the boards. Red Bay's tallest player is five-foot-nine.
If Red Bay can pull off the upset, they Lady Tigers will advance to play the winner of the Cold Springs-Hatton game Saturday.
