With Elba right around the corner, Red Level isn’t looking past tonight’s first area contest against Zion Chapel, head boys coach Allen Catrett said.

Zion Chapel has only recorded one win this season. The Rebels earned the win at Ariton’s Christmas Tournament in December.

Red Level improved to 9-7 on the season after a 60-49 victory over Excel on Tuesday night.

“To be honest with you, I can’t tell you much about them,” Catrett said about Zion Chapel. “I know a little bit more about Elba. They seem like the team to beat. I’ve watched them about three or four different times. They have a pretty good team over there.”

Catrett said his best guess about tonight’s match up against the Rebels is that it will be a “surprise” in how they run their offense and defense.

“We’re not going to take any one of the area games lightly,” he said. “That’s definitely the mind set. Our goal is to win the area, and we want to host the tournament here. (Today) and Friday are where we’re going to start.”

Elba tallied a 6-4 record before the holiday break, and a couple of its losses were to Andalusia and Brantley.

Catrett said the keys in the upcoming nights’ contests are similar to what his team has been doing all along this season.

Against Zion Chapel, Catrett said the game “philosophy” will not change defensively and offensively.

“We’re going to play the same kind of philosophy that’s our style,” he said. “(Tonight), we want to win it defensively. We’re going to apply pressure, and make them shoot contested shots. We want to rebound and give them the least opportunities to score. As far as offensively, we want to run a base offense, and get the ball where it needs to go.”

On Elba, Catrett said it has a good shooting team.

“They’re good at getting good high-percentage shots,” he said. “They’ve got good athletes and get after it. They stick to the game plan real well.”

As far as who he is looking to play well, Catrett said the answer to winning lies within the whole team.

“We’re going to look at all nine of them,” Catrett said. “It’s going to take every bit of them. They’re going to have to play to their role. If we start relying on individual players, then we’re going to start running into trouble.”

Tip off tonight in Zion Chapel will be around 7 p.m.

The Elba game will tip off at the same time on Friday night.

Editor’s note: The Dothan Eagle contributed to this story.