Both Red Level’s and Florala’s coaches agree that tonight’s game in Florala could be a close one.

Red Level saw some recent success Monday night after the Tigers ended W.S. Neal’s four-game win-streak, winning 65-56.

“Playing Florala, it’s going to be a big ball game for us,” Red Level coach Fred Kelley said. “We’re looking forward to building from our win Monday night. I know that (Florala) coach (Brad) Garner will have his bunch ready.”

For Florala, the exact opposite happened on Monday night.

Due to a tornado warning and with 8.8 seconds left on the clock, the Wildcats suffered a 52-49 defeat to Samson, after the game was canceled due to the weather.

Garner said he hopes that his team will come out and play well and make it “close” with the visiting Tigers.

“I feel like if we play well it will be a close game because I expect Red Level to play well, too,” Garner said. “They’ve got a lot of new faces and they have a lot of people that are having to step up and play for them just due to graduation.

“The most important thing right now for us is just us learning our stuff and learning our system and playing well and not so much focusing on the other team,” he said.

Garner said his team needs to improve on its clock management.

“I like to call it ‘controlling the game,’” he said. “We did a lot of good things Monday night and then in the end, we just didn’t control it.

“We had bad possessions, both defensively and offensively,” he said. “We’ve got to learn how to control the basketball game. The most important thing is how you play when you get the ball and get the lead. That’s coming with experience and I think we’re getting better with it.

“It’s getting close to area time and I think we might need to increase the learning curve a little bit,” he said.

Garner said he also expects a good crowd tonight.

“I hope everybody comes out and supports us,” he said. “We’ve been having pretty good crowds. I hope they can support these kids because they are fighting through a tough season and they’re getting better every game. We want people to support them.”