All locked up

DAWSON – Terrell Academy’s girls locked up the top seed in next week’s region tournament with Tuesday’s 49-43 win against Fullington Academy.

Still, that doesn’t guarantee much, Lady Eagles head coach Keith Jones said.

“That’s no cake walk,” he said. “We’ve got four teams (in Region 3-A) that have a strong chance of making it to the Final Four.”

Terrell beat Fullington for the second time this season for the Lady Trojans’ only losses in GISA 3-A. And they did it without Alex Barfield and Marlee Locke down the stretch. Both players fouled out with five and four minutes to play, respectively,

leaving Terrell with an eighth grader and two freshmen on the court late.

Terrell’s Millie Foster and Fullington’s Ashlyn Reed matched shot for shot most of the night. Foster finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds, while Reed had 22.

Reed scored all nine of Fullington’s points in the third quarter, but was held to just four in the final quarter.

“We lost Ashlyn on several occasions and that should never happen,” Jones said. “Late in the game we kept her bottled up. She’s a heck of a shooter.”

Fullington went ahead, 29-28, in the third quarter, but Foster answered with a 3-pointer to put Terrell (13-7, 6-1 region) ahead for good.

“Millie has played as good a basketball as anybody in this region since Christmas,” Jones said.

Foster, a junior, credited her team’s youngsters for helping clinch the regular season No. 1 seed.

“All the girls that came off the bench played well,” Foster said.

Locke, who played with two sprained ankles, scored nine points before fouling out, and helped limit the Lady Eagles’ turnovers to just 11. Barfield had seven points and 10 boards.

Terrell hosts Westwood Friday before opening GISA Region 3-A tournament play Feb. 11 at Fullington Academy.

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FULLINGTON BOYS 44, TERRELL ACADEMY 41:

Fullington’s boys handed the Eagles just their second loss in region play, avoiding a flip of a coin to determine the region’s top seed for the tourney.

The Trojans (17-2, 8-0 region) led by as many as 11 in the first half, but a 9-0 Eagles run cut the lead to 22-18 at the half.

Terrell’s Clay Willis hit a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left to trail, 44-41m before the Eagles had one last shot to tie it at the buzzer, but Willis and Nick Beaver’s last second attempts came up short.

“We had to have this one,” Fullington head coach Van Bailey said. “I didn’t want to go to a coin toss.”

An Eagles’ win would have forced a tiebreaker for the region’s top seed. Tuesday’s win was the Trojans’ 13th in a row.

Willis led Terrell (15-4, 5-2 region) with 15 points, while Jonathan Farr added nine. Fullington was led by Brandon Bailey’s 15 points.