Franklin County Tournament

By Staff
Red Bay girls defend title, defeat Belgreen 64-49
Kim West
PHIL CAMPBELL – The Red Bay varsity girls earned their tenth consecutive Franklin County championship with a hard-fought 64-49 victory over Belgreen Saturday night.
Belgreen jumped out to a 6-1 start as Monica Smith made a putback, Martha Billingham hit a pair of free throws and Amber Smith fed Billingham for an easy layup. Red Bay tied the score at 10 before a putback by Amber Smith and a driving layup by Candice Allen put the Lady Bulldogs back ahead 14-10 at the end of the first quarter.
Red Bay opened the second with a 14-0 run that included six points apiece by Brittany Scott and Morgan Duncan, and the Lady Tigers led 34-20 at halftime.
Belgreen dug into a 14-point Red Bay lead in the fourth quarter as the Lady Bulldogs went on a 6-0 run that cut the lead to 59-51 with five minutes remaining. But the Lady Tigers responded with a jumper by Chelsey McWilliams and four free throws by Kirsten Sharp to push the lead back to 14 and Belgreen couldn't draw closer than 10 points the rest of the way.
Duncan scored a game-high 16 points Red Bay, while McWilliams had 13 and Scott and Britan Bolding each added 10.
Martha Billingham led Belgreen with 14 points, while Deborah Billingham and Amber Smith each finished with nine.