Red Bay Lady Tigers to meet familiar foe at Regional Tournament
Red Bay coach Donnie Roberts will be making his fifteenth appearance along with the Lady Tiger basketball team at the Class 2A Regional Tournament in Hanceville following a 60-25 win over Sumiton Christian in the sub-region game Monday night.
This is the fifth consecutive trip for Roberts and Red Bay to the Northwest Regionals.
Red Bay plays Tanner Feb. 12 at 3 p.m. at Wallace State.
The Lady Tigers and the Lady Rattlers have a long history of meeting in post-season play. The most recent battle was last year when the Tigers eliminated Tanner 39-28 in the regional finals to advance to the state tournament in Birmingham.
Monday night, Red Bay had an easy win over the Lady Eagles, posting a 41-12 lead at halftime.
“Our girls played well offensively and defensively,” said Lady Tiger head coach Donnie Roberts.
“What’s going to be a factor if we’re going to continue to win is our rebounding.”
Roberts said Red Bay didn’t do well rebounding in the first quarter and sometimes didn’t block out. As a result Sumiton Christian scored easily off of it.
Monday night’s game was unlike last year’s sub-region game, when the Tigers squandered a 10-point lead to allow Lexington to bounce back to send the game into overtime.
Red Bay defeated Lexington 52-41 in the overtime period to advance to Hanceville.
“I remember that well,” added Roberts. I got a sick feeling when Lexington attempted that last shot in the fourth quarter and missed it. They could have won the game and we would have been out.”
The Lady Tigers used the Lexington game as a springboard to the Final 48 at Birmingham. Red Bay defeated Sulligent in the semi-finals 56-33, but lost to Woodland 65-52 in the championship game.
It’s now win or go home for all teams at this point. Can the Lady Tigers repeat their post-season play from 2014 to again be part of the Final 48?
“It’s our goal to go the Birmingham every year,” said Roberts.
“We’re going to have to play our best game in every game from here on.”
