Tourney roundup: Area favorites Sunshine, G’boro struggle at home
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, February 15, 2006
4A Area 6
Boys: Greensboro defeated the Dallas County Hornets twice during the regular season to earn the right to host the Area 6 tourney, but neither those earlier results nor the home court advantage meant much Monday as DCHS stormed to a 79-70 victory.
Ivory White scored 21 and Rashad Hobson 18 for the Raiders, but it meant little as the Hornets sprinted to an 18-point halftime lead and never let up. The 79 points scored against the Greensboro defense is far above the Raiders’ season average.
Greensboro must now win on the road Friday at Holt, 49-24 winners over Montevallo in the Area 8 title game, to advance to the regionals in Mobile.
3A Area 6
Boys: The No. 1 ranked Sumter County Wildcats survived a scare from third-seeded Aliceville, falling behind for a brief period in the second half before prevailing 66-62. Larry Foster finished with 18 for the Wildcats, who will host Area 1 runner-up T.R. Miller, 64-60 losers to Clarke County, Friday in the sub-regionals.
Girls: For the third time this season, the Francis Marion Lady Rams hung right with the Sumter County Lady Wildcats. But the third time this season Marion couldn’t quite find an answer for Rekina Crawford and lost, this time 44-42 in Monday’s Area 6 championship game. Crawford, SCHS’s dominant senior center, scored 23 points and was named tournament MVP. Quineshia Arrington scored 18 to lead Marion.
Marion must now travel to face T.R. Miller, the No. 8 team in 3A and 38-31 winners over Clarke County, whom Sumter will host in York in Thursday’s sub-regionals.
1A Area 2
Boys: Linden avenged their only area defeat of the season Monday, taking down the Coffeeville Panthers in Coffeeville 68-59 to claim the Area 2 title and the right to host a sub-regional game against Sunshine Friday. The Linden boys have yet to fail to qualify for regionals this decade.
1A Area 8
Boys: Sunshine defeated Demopolis and Greensboro on their home court this season, but when it counted they couldn’t defeat the Carrolton Indians.
For the second time this season, the Indians defeated the Tigers in Newbern, this time 53-44 to claim the Area 8 championship. Sunshine will now travel to Linden in Friday’s sub-regionals while Carrolton will play host to Coffeeville.