The 2014 AHSAA area basketball tournament pairings are in the process of being set statewide and on the local level for W.S. Neal and T.R. Miller. 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.
Locally for the W.S. Neal and T.R. Miller girls, their area tournament will begin Thursday, Feb. 6 with the regular season area champion hosting.
Boys area tournaments will begin Friday, Feb. 8 also at the home of regular season area champion.
The winners from the girls tournament will meet for the area championship Saturday while the boys semifinal winners would play Monday for the area championship.
Although official tournament brackets have not been set yet, 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.
As of the writing of this story, the site of the boys area tournament games was unknown. Bayside Academy and Cottage Hill were scheduled to play each other Friday night for the area title. If Cottage Hill won, the Warriors would claim the area championship outright.
If Bayside Academy won, the two teams would have to flip to decide the area champion due to both splitting wins against each other during the regular season.
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 would have to have a coin flip to decide their area seedings as either the No. 3 seed or the No. 4 seed after the two teams split in the regular season to finish with identical records. (Update: WSN won a coin flip Friday at TRM and will be the No. 3 seed in the area tourney while TRM will be the No. 4 seed.)
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.
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.
The winners from Thursday’s games will play for the area tournament Saturday, Feb. 9, at 3 p.m. while the losers will be eliminated and see their seasons come to an end.
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.
The winners from Friday’s games will play for the area tournament Monday, Feb. 11, at 6 p.m. while the losers will be eliminated and see their seasons come to an end.
As of the writing of this story, W.S. Neal’s girls had a record of 4-14 overall and finished 4-2 in area play. The varsity Eagles were 5-15 overall and went 1-5 in area play.
T.R. Miller’s Lady Tigers had a record of 4-15 overall and finished 2-4 in area play while the varsity Tigers were 5-12 overall and went 1-5 in area play.
W.S. Neal was scheduled to play at Pleasant Home Friday and will see their regular season end Monday at home as they host the Flomaton Hurricanes for Senior Night.
T.R. Miller was scheduled to host Hillcrest Friday night and will return to action Saturday at home as they will also play Flomaton for Senior Night.
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.