Lanier’s Keith Braswell can’t find a handle on the ball in the Poets’ loss to Opelika on Tuesday. (Staff Photo)

Staff Report
(Feb. 17, 2010)

The Prattville Lions made their first appearance in 12 years in the Class 6A regional on Tuesday.

After a poor showing, they hope it’s not the last for a while.

Central-Phenix City took an easy 72-48 victory over the Lions at the Alabama State Acadome, setting up a date with Opelika, which defeated Sidney Lanier.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Phenix City but we made mistakes early and didn’t hit key shots,” Prattville coach Xavier Robinson said. “We were the problem today.”

Prattville hit just seven field goals in the first half. They followed by hitting just eight in the second. The Lions suffered 17 turnovers.

Central’s zone defense was to blame for part of the problem.

“They looked like football athletes playing basketball out there,” Central coach Bobby Wright said. “We took advantage of that.

“We wanted to come out and be aggressive. I talked to the players about not coming out and being lethargic. I told those guys that if we press them some and play aggressive defense, we might have a chance, because their guards didn’t seem to handle the ball as well.”

Central built as much as a 26-point lead in the second half after leading by 13 at halftime.

Wright admitted that the Red Devils’ loss to Prattville in the football playoffs was in the back of his mind during the win.

“That meant a little bit more to me,” said Wright, who is also the defensive coordinator in football. “I wanted to stick it to them a little bit, because they kind of stuck it to us in football.”

Dionte Ferguson led Prattville (20-8) with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Poets can’t stop Opelika

Opelika forced nine turnovers in the first eight minutes, turning a tie game into a 22-point rout on the way to a 66-52 win over Sidney Lanier in the boys Class 6A Central Regional on Tuesday afternoon.

The win set up a fifth meeting with Area 7 rival Central-Phenix City on Friday at 11:40 a.m. The winner advances to the state tournament at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Center next week.

The two teams split the previous four games.

“Central might know us better than we know ourselves and vice versa," said Opelika coach John Wadsworth. "But it’s hopefully going to be a good battle like it was during the season. For us and Central to be in the regional finals says a lot about our area and I expect it to be nothing less than a war.”

Lanier’s leading scorer, Keith Braswell, scored five of his 17 points in the first three minutes, but nothing went right for Lanier  at that point. The Poets suffered 10 turnovers and an 0-for-6 shooting slump, KeDarius Humphries hit a 3-pointer to end a 17-0 run by Opelika.

"If you let them play their game, you’re going to have a hard time," said Lanier coach Floyd Matthews, "and in the early part of the game, we didn’t handle it well. They hadn’t shown us they could shoot that well from the outside but they feed off their defense. When you get going with your game and you’re motivated and you’re feeling it, things start falling."

Jacoby Payne led Opelika with 14 points, followed by Montrez Hunter with 11 points and 10 rebounds.