It#039;s No. 1 vs. No. 2 as Eagles take on Gators
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, February 14, 2007
The Fort Dale Academy Lady Eagles will make their run at a second state championship in four years this weekend at Huntingdon College as the AISA Class AAA Final Four gets underway Friday.
And it won't be easy as the No. 2 Lady Eagles will face off with the unbeaten No. 1 Glenwood Lady Gators.
Reggie Mantooth's Lady Eagles advanced to the regionals after capturing both the regular-season area championship and the area tournament championship and advanced to the Final Four Friday with a close win over the Morgan Senators 37-30.
Although Fort Dale had already beaten Morgan three times this season, the Lady Eagles shot a dismal 25 percent from the field in the fourth match up of the season Friday and head coach Mantooth said his girls will need to be more aggressive to the basket if they expect to compete with Glenwood.
“We're going to have to execute better and, hopefully, shoot better,” Mantooth said.
Mantooth said Glenwood has not been beaten for a reason, being that the Lady Gators have both a strong inside and outside game.
“They're well coached with a good inside game, but I would say their strength is their guards,” Mantooth said. “We're really going to have to play a good defensive game and don't give them easy baskets.”
After Friday's close call with Morgan, Mantooth said his players see that this late in the season, anyone can win at anytime.
“We learned from [the Morgan] game and we feel we can compete with Glenwood,” Mantooth said.
Last season, the Lady Eagles were one of only three teams to defeat Glenwood, upending the Lady Gators in the Lee-Scott Tournament.
This season, only time will tell.
Friday's game at Huntingdon is scheduled for 2 p.m., and the championship game will be held Saturday at 4 p.m.
The winner of the Fort Dale-Glenwood game will take on the winner of the Faith-Lee-Scott game.