By Keith Ledbetter. The Red Bay Lady Tigers and Coach Donnie Roberts pose with their Area 16 plaque.

By Keith Ledbetter

For the FCT

The Red Bay Lady Tigers moved one step closer to another possible region appearance after they picked up the AHSAA 2A, Area 16 championship Saturday with a 56-41 win over Colbert Heights.

With the win, Red Bay earned hosting privileges for the sub-region game this Thursday, Feb. 13, and will face the loser of the 2A, Area 15 battle between Tanner and Lexington that will be played Monday night at Tanner.

“It’s good that we’ll be playing at home next week,” Red Bay girls’ head coach Donnie Roberts said following the win.

“It’s going to be a challenge, so we need everyone to come out and support us next Thursday.”

The 28-3 Tigers’ season is almost a carbon copy of last year when Red Bay had a 26-3 record at this time and ended up winning the sub-region against Lexington by a score of 44-36 and advancing to Hanceville.

In the game against Colbert Heights on Saturday, Red Bay opened up with a 5-0 advantage on a three-pointer from Elizabeth Wooten and a basket from Kasey Sparks.

Allie Kennedy connected on a three pointer to push Red Bay’s lead to 8-2 midway through the first quarter.

Sparks added a three-point play and Jade Faulkner hit a three-pointer near the top of the key to end the quarter for Red Bay with a 16-6 lead.

Red Bay’s dominant press led to several turnovers and also kept the Lady Wildcats from scoring more than two points during the entire second quarter.

With a 38-8 lead going into the third, Roberts cleared the bench to give all the Lady Tigers valuable game experience.

“We got off to a good start, and they did an outstanding job but they’re going to have to keep that up because we’re at that point of do or die,” Roberts added.

Red Bay was in the position to advance to Saturday’s Area 16 final game after knocking off Cherokee 51-31 in Thursday’s semi-final game.

Elizabeth Wooten led Red Bay against Colbert Heights with 13 points, with nine coming from three pointers.

Kasey Sparks scored 11, Darby Madden had 10, Allie Kennedy scored six, Hope Cook added four, Danielle Hastings and Jade Faulkner scored three each, and Brooklyn Bolton, Morgan Pierce and Carlee Berry scored two each.