Multiple champs in Area Tournament

Multiple Marion County teams are area champions after each tournament last week.
The tournament determined which winners and runners-up would be advancing to the Regional Tournament, which began this weekend with the sub-regional round.
Several teams advanced to sub-regionals, but not all survived to travel to Wallace State this week.
Here is a recap of the Area Tournament, broken down by classification.

1A Girls
Brilliant, Hackleburg, Marion County and Phillips all competed in the girls’ 1A Area 13 Tournament, which began on Friday, Jan. 31.
The Phillips She-Bears played the Vina Lady Red Devils at Marion County that night. Vina won the game 55-35 to secure their spot in the second round against Marion County on Saturday, Feb. 1.
The second round also featured a game between the Hackleburg Lady Panthers and the Brilliant Lady Tigers immediately afterward.
The Lady Red Raiders won their second round over Vina 48-30 to advance to the area final.
Brilliant defeated Hackleburg 56-44 to set up the final round, which was played on Tuesday, Feb. 4.
Marion County won the championship game over the Lady Tigers 56-48, but both teams would advance to the sub-regional round.

1A Boys
The opening round of the boys’ 1A Area 13 Tournament featured a nail-biter between the hosting Vina Red Devils and the Brilliant Tigers on Thursday, Jan. 30.
Vina won by one point (43-42), to knock the Tigers out of the tournament and advance to the second round.
Vina went up against the hosting Hackleburg Panthers, and Marion County played against Phillips in the second round.
Vina’s next game was much less of a nail-biter, ending with a 70-34 victory in favor of the Panthers on Monday, Feb. 3.
Marion County also won by a comfortable margin with a 63-40 victory over the Phillips Bears later that same day.
The final round came down to the Raiders and the Panthers on Wednesday, Feb. 5, in Hackleburg.
The Panthers won the game 66-51 to enter regionals as the champions, with the Raiders tagging along as the runners-up.

3A Girls
The girls’ 3A Area 10 Tournament started on Monday, Feb. 3, with the semi-final round.
Winfield played Oakman at Carbon Hill that evening after a game between Carbon Hill and Gordo earlier that afternoon.
The Carbon Hill Lady Bulldogs defeated the Gordo Green Wave 49-11 to earn their spot in the final round later that week.
The Lady Pirates defeated the Oakman Lady Wildcats 68-21 and went on to face the Lady Bulldogs for the area final.
The Lady Pirates held the lead first, ending the first quarter ahead 13-8, but the Lady Bulldogs took the lead back to end the half with a 26-21 lead.
Winfield re-took the lead in the third quarter and managed to hold it, winning the area championship 51-43.
The Lady Pirates advanced to the Regional Tournament as area champions.

3A Boys
The boys’ 3A Area 10 Tournament, which began on Monday, Feb. 3, followed a similar progression all the way until the final round.
The Pirates played Oakman that evening, narrowly winning by two points (51-49) thanks to a last-second 3-point buzzer-beater by Winfield’s Jacob Chism, and advanced to the final round.
The Bulldogs defeated Gordo 51-43 to earn their spot in the final round against the Pirates on Wednesday, Feb. 5.
The Bulldogs held the lead at 22-14 going into the second quarter, and maintained it to hold the Pirates back 29-26 at half time.
The Bulldogs ramped up their pace and scored 24 more points in the third quarter to the Pirates’ 14.
Carbon Hill held a 50-43 lead going into the final quarter, and the Bulldogs would go on to win the game 67-56.
The Pirates still advanced to the Regional Tournament as runners-up.

4A Girls
The girls’ 4A Area 10 Tournament also began on Monday, Feb. 3, in Hamilton.
The first of two rounds was between the Haleyville Lady Lions and the Fayette County Lady Tigers, which the Lady Lions won 49-39 to face the Lady Aggies in the final round.
Hamilton hosted Haleyville for the final game on Wednesday, Feb. 5.
The Lady Aggies held the lead at 30-26 at half time, but the Lady Lions remained right on their heels, closing the gap to 30-36 at the end of the third quarter.
With 7:35 to go, Haleyville briefly tied the game 39-39, but the Lady Aggies turned things around and re-took the lead to win the game 54-44.
The Lady Aggies advanced to the Regional Tournament as the champions.

4A Boys
The boys’ 4A Area 10 tournament began on Monday, Feb. 3, in Fayette, with an opening game between the Hamilton Aggies and the Haleyville Lions.
The Aggies lost the semi-final game 69-58, preventing their advance to the Regional Tournament.
The Lions would go on to lose to the Fayette County Tigers 48-43 on Wednesday, Feb. 5, but both teams still advanced to regionals.

Sub-Regionals
Sub-regional games were played on Friday, Feb. 7, and Saturday, Feb. 8, and resulted in a few teams getting knocked out of the tournament.
The Hamilton Lady Aggies lost their sub-regional game against Cordova 53-48 on Friday to bring their state tournament run to a close.
The Winfield Lady Pirates lost to Phil Campbell 52-42 that same night to end their shot at the state final.
Winfield’s boys lost to Mars Hill 48-41 on Saturday which knocked them out of the tournament, too.
Hackleburg’s boys made a strong entrance into the regional tournament with a 100-39 victory over Cherokee on Saturday, and went on to play Hubbertville yesterday.
The Lady Red Raiders and Lady Tigers both won their sub-regional games.
Marion County defeated Shoals Christian 83-52, and Brilliant won 60-35 at Waterloo on Friday night.
Yesterday, Marion County played Hubbertville and Brilliant played Lynn in the second round.
These second-round games took place after this week’s press deadline on Monday, Feb. 10, and will be covered in next week’s issue of the Journal-Record.