DHS boys host sub-regional

By Dusty Harper (Contact) | Dadeville Record

Published Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The Dadeville boys basketball team will host Friday’s sub-regional match-up after claiming its first area title in well over a decade.

The Tigers clobbered LaFayette 62-47 in the Class 3A, Area 7 title game on the Bulldogs’ own home court Monday. Now, Rodney Taylor’s team will welcome Trinity to DHS for the right to play in the Central Regional Tournament next week at Alabama State.

“We really played well all night,” Taylor said. “We controlled the boards, beat their press and got lay-ups off of it. We gave them a different look on defense, and it worked.

“We played a zone and made them play a halfcourt game. They weren’t able to get any fast-break points and we just kept stretching the lead.”

Kieran Sturdivant, who missed the last few games of the season with an ankle injury, dropped 17 points on LaFayette and picked up 11 rebounds to record a double-double. Terry Toler (15 points, nine rebounds) and Quin Alvies (12 points, eight rebounds) just missed on double-doubles.

Dadeville led 28-16 at halftime and upped its advantage to as many as 21 at one point.

“Last year was a first for me as a coach when we beat Coosa at their place,” Taylor said. “This is the first time one of my teams has beaten LaFayette on the road, and it’s the first time Dadeville has hosted a sub-regional game since they’ve been having the final four in Birmingham.

“We’re excited to be here and hope we can have a big crowd on hand.”

The Tigers won a thriller on Friday over Beulah to advance to the championship game. Down by five with less than a minute to go, Kyle Caldwell tied the game with 17 seconds remaining with a 3-pointer, and the game went into overtime at 50-50.

In OT, the Tigers made 12 of 14 free throws to pull away for a 64-59 win. Alvies was 6 of 6 in the extra period from the charity stripe and closed with 13 points and 14 boards. Adam Clark scored a career-high 17 points in the victory, and Toler added 12.

DHS (16-11) has now won five games in a row and will take on a Trinity team that lost to Montgomery Academy 57-55 in the Area 5 tournament finals. The Wildcats (16-10) are led by Blake Struthers, who averages 16 points per game.

Tip-off is 7 p.m. on Friday.

The Dadeville girls will travel to Montgomery Academy on Thursday after falling in the area tournament championship to LaFayette 46-26.

The Lady Tigers (14-13) got off to a good start on Monday against the Lady Bulldogs, as they took a 7-4 lead after the first quarter and trailed by only a point at halftime.

But, turnovers became too much of a problem, and the home team ran away with a 20-point win.

“We had been doing a better job of protecting the ball, but we had 33 turnovers and that led to bunches of fast-break points,” head coach Greg Shelton said. “We defended pretty well in a halfcourt situation, but there were too many opportunities for them in a run-out situations. They jacked up the pressure on us defensively, and we didn’t respond well.”

The Lady Tigers played with an injured group of players. Yana Tolbert, who had six points, and Kiona Harris were both banged up. Shae Heard was under the weather, as well, leaving the team with a short bench.

“We were sort of the walking wounded out there,” Shelton said. “But, we went hard and did the best we could with what we had.”

Rae Williams had 10 points in the loss and Latorria Boyd had four. DHS advanced by defeating the Lady Bobcats of Beulah 52-49.

Now, Dadeville faces a team that’s 22-5 on the season. The Lady Eagles defeated DHS 55-32 earlier in the season. They are a balanced team, as five players average more than seven points per game. M.A. beat Trinity 51-38 and Montevallo 70-37 to make it to Thursday’s contest.

“It will certainly be a tall order for us,” Shelton said of the next game. “They are a quick, solid, strong team that plays great man-to-man defense. But, we’ll do all we can to get prepared and maybe we can pull it out.”

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