Feb. 18, 2011

Several area girls teams headed to regional tourney

By Kurt Duryea

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Cherokee County and the surrounding area will be well represented at this week's Northeast Regional Basketball Tournament in Jacksonville.

Each team has their eyes fixed on hoisting the title trophy and punching their ticket to the next week's Final Four in Birmingham.

This year, Cherokee County, Sand Rock, Spring Garden, Collinsville and Fort Payne all have dates for the regional dance.

The fifth-ranked Lady Warriors (26-3) had no trouble clearing their last hurdle into regional as they dispatched Saint Clair County 65-32 in their most recent game. Eleven Lady Warriors scored in the sub-regional contest.

Seniors Deidre Davis and Kaitlyn Griffith led the attack scoring 15 and 12, respectively. The Lady Warriors play Thursday at 9 a.m. against Guntersville.

Spring Garden closed out Athens 65-25 to advance. Tara Mullinax powered the Panther attack with 21 points and Katie Rickman chipped in 14. Spring Garden will be tested by Jacksonville Christian (27-2) when they face-off Tuesday night at 6 p.m.

The Sand Rock Lady Wildcats delivered coach Lisa Bates her 200th coaching win in an exciting fashion against the Section Lions.

The Lady Cats were up 10-9 after one period but fell behind at the half. The Lions came out strong in the third quarter pushing their advantage to 12.

Just when it appeared Section was packing their bags for Jacksonville, the Lady Cats roared back closing the gap to 38-31 at the end of the third.

The Rock continued to build momentum and gained the upper hand on the Lions. A trey at the buzzer by Section left the Lions one short and the Rock claimed the 55-54 victory. The Wildcats will square off against Ranburne (23-5) at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Collinsville (12-12) will also join the group at Pete Mathews Coliseum by virtue of a 66-48 road win over Woodville. The Lady Panthers play Tuesday at 3 p.m. against Ragland.

Fourth-ranked Fort Payne (27-4) received a bye into the regional tournament and will face No. 1-ranked Erwin (25-3) in a marquee match-up on Wednesday at 9 a.m.

The Class 1A, 5A, and 6A finals are set for Friday. The finals in classes 2A, 4A, and 3A tip-off on Saturday. Admission to the tourney is $8 per day.