The 2014 AHSAA area basketball tournament pairings have been set statewide and on the local level for both W.S. Neal and T.R. Miller’s girls and boys teams.
This season, with both W.S. Neal and T.R. Miller being in the same area, the two teams will be playing in the same tournament.
This season, both Cottage Hill’s girls and boys won the regular season area championship. With both Cottage Hill’s teams winning, both girls and boys tournaments will be held Friday in Mobile. Usually, girls area tournaments begin Thursday and boys tourney play starts on Friday followed by the finals of the girls tournament being played on Saturday and the boys on Monday.
T.R. Miller’s girls finished their 3A area 1 schedule with a 2-4 record and took the No. 3 spot and will travel to area winner Cottage Hill in Mobile to face No. 2 seed W.S. Neal who finished 4-2 in area play. Area winner Cottage Hill will play No. 4-seed Bayside Academy in the semifinal round of the area tournament.
The varsity Tigers of T.R. Miller finished area play with a 1-5 record while the varsity Eagles of W.S. Neal also finished with a 1-5 record.
The two teams had to have their seedings in the area tournament decided by a coin flip.
W.S. Neal won a coin flip Friday at T.R. Miller and will be the No. 3 seed in the area tourney while T.R. Miller will be the No. 4 seed.
The area tournament will begin Friday at Cottage Hill at 3 p.m. with T.R. Miller’s girls taking on W.S. Neal at 3 p.m.
The game will be followed by W.S. Neal’s boys taking on Bayside Academy at 4:30 p.m.
Bayside’s boys finished as the No. 2 seed in the tournament while Cottage Hill will be the No. 1 seed.
At 6 p.m., Cottage Hill’s girls will take on Bayside Academy. At 7:30 p.m., T.R. Miller’s boys will meet Cottage Hill at 4:30 p.m.
Play will resume Monday at 6 p.m. with the girls winners from Friday night facing each other for the area championship. The boys championship game will take place at 7:30 p.m. with Friday’s winners meeting each other.
The area tournaments will be single elimination format.
Winners of the area tournaments will host sub-region games the following week while the area runner-ups will travel to their sub-region opponent.
Class 3A area 1 would be paired with area 2 in the sub-region round which includes Excel, Opp, Southside-Selma and Straughn—the other four teams from W.S. Neal and T.R. Miller’s football region.
In class 3A area 2, both the girls and boys games will be held at Straughn.
In boys play, Straughn finished as the No. 1-seed followed by Southside-Selma, Excel and Opp.
In girls play, Straughn finished as the No. 1-seed followed by Southside-Selma, Excel and Opp.
Winners of sub-regional games will advance to the South Regional in Dothan.
Winners from the four regional sites across the state will advance to the state tournament in Birmingham for the Final 4 of each of the six classifications for girls and boys to makeup the Final 48 participants.
Admission to the area tournaments is $6 per session.
T.R. Miller’s Lady Tigers lost both regular season area games to W.S. Neal this year, but defeated W.S. Neal in the Escambia County Tournament. W.S. Neal’s two area losses came to Cottage Hill while T.R. Miller’s two wins came at the hands of Bayside Academy.
T.R. Miller’s boys lost both games to Bayside Academy this year while W.S. Neal lost both their games to Cottage Hill. Both T.R. Miller and W.S. Neal won one game against each other this year. T.R. Miller defeated W.S. Neal in Brewton while the Eagles took down the Tigers in East Brewton.
W.S. Neal’s girls finished their regular season with a record of 5-16 overall and finished 4-2 in area play. The varsity Eagles were 5-18 overall and went 1-5 in area play.
T.R. Miller’s Lady Tigers finished their regular season with an overall of 4-17 and finished 2-4 in area play while the varsity Tigers were 5-14 overall and went 1-5 in area play.
T.R. Miller’s girls went 0-2 against both Cottage Hill and W.S. Neal this season in area tournament games while they were 2-0 against Bayside Academy.
T.R. Miller’s boys went 0-2 against both Bayside Academy and Cottage Hill and split with W.S. Neal.
W.S. Neal’s girls went 2-0 against both T.R. Miller and Bayside Academy while going 0-2 against Cottage Hill.
Cottage Hill’s girls went 6-0 against area teams this season while Bayside Academy was 0-6.
W.S. Neal’s boys went 0-2 against both Bayside Academy and Cottage and split with T.R. Miller.