Senior Ty Newton and junior Ben Bates combined for 33 points Thursday night as the Fort Dale Academy varsity basketball team cruised to its fourth win in a row over the Monroe Academy Volunteers, 55-43.

The Eagles got off to a hot start and never looked back Thursday, especially in the first period.

With just a three-point lead with seconds remaining in the first, Fort Dale's Newton drained a three-point shot at the buzzer to send the Eagle crowd to their feet.

The Eagles opened up a 17-point lead at the half before putting the game away in the second half.

Newton finished the game as the Eagles' leading scorer with 19 points, eight rebounds and four steals.

Bates finished the night with 14 points and six rebounds while junior Davis Watts had 10 points, eight rebounds and three steals.

Junior Bobby Martin was the Eagles' leading rebounder with nine.

Anderson Hudson was the leading scorer for Monroe with 13 points and Todd Kilpatrick finished with 10 points.

Thomas Williams also had six points in the loss.

The Fort Dale Academy basketball teams will return to action today at home against the Hooper Colts starting at 1 p.m.

Varsity Girls

Monroe 43, Fort Dale 39

The Fort Dale Lady Eagles suffered the first loss of the season Thursday night as the Monroe Academy Lady Volunteers hit seven free throws in the last minute to seal a 43-39 win.

After leading 31-28 at the end of the third period, Fort Dale's Jennifer Pouncey cut the Volunteer's four-point lead to two with just under two minutes remaining and then junior Michelle Hulick got a steal and a basket to tie the game at 36-36 before the Volunteers finished near perfect from the free-throw line.

Pouncey was the leading scorer for the Lady Eagles with 10 points and also finished with six rebounds and four steals.

Senior Casey Hicks and junior Ulli Sanstrom each had seven points and Hulick finished with six points, six rebounds three steals and two blocks.

For the Volunteers, Aston Salter was the leading scorer with 19 points and Fairbie Moye had 12 points. Megan Salter also had eight points for Monroe.