East Limestone’s LaCorey McDonald takes it to the basket against Ardmore’s Freaas Al Saba in Monday night action at the Limestone County Basketball Tournament at Tanner.

It was a good night for Elkmont High School as the Red Devils and Lady Red Devils both advanced Tuesday to the semifinal round of the Limestone County Tournament. Coach Steve Bates’ Lady Red Devils came from behind to defeat Ardmore 77-61while Stace Tedford’s boys held off Athens Bible School 56-46.

In a game where neither team had a double-digit lead until the fourth quarter, Ardmore held the advantage at the end of each of the first three quarters of the girls game. The Lady Tigers led 18-13 after the first period and 36-32 at halftime. Elkmont twice tied the score in the third quarter but could not capture the lead as they trailed 55-51 entering the final period. With the score tied 55-55 with just under six minutes remaining, the Lady Red Devils went on a 14-0 run and never looked back. Jamie Lack scored ten points in the game’s final six minutes and seemingly took over the game.

“I was proud of our girls,” Bates said. “We had some players get into foul trouble and I thought we might back down but we didn’t. We showed some heart. Ardmore played hard. Kim Walker does a great job with her teams. They all got after it hard. We just didn’t quit.”

Lack finished as the game’s leading scorer with 21 points. Bailee Robinson scored 19 points, Olivia Pressnell had 13 and Amber Harwell scored 12 points. Ardmore also had four players in double figures. Jennifer Mills had 17 points, Shannon Fogg and Hailey Drake each had 12 points and Brittany Miles scored 10 points for the Lady Tigers.

Elkmont will face Tanner Friday night in the semifinals.

In the boys game, the Red Devils got off to a slow start. The first quarter would end with the score tied at five. Late in the quarter, Tedford called a timeout that seemed to get his team’s attention. The Red Devils went into a full court press and outscored the Trojans 25-8 in the second period to lead 30-13 at halftime.

“We didn’t start well,” Tedford said. “The press really helped us. We were fortunate enough to hit some shots after that.”

Elkmont expanded its lead to 24 points at the end of the third quarter with the score 47-23. The Trojans came to play, however, and would not go away silently. ABS cut the lead to eight at one point behind the hot shooting of Will Stinnett. But it was too late as Elkmont came away with a ten-point win.

“Anytime you play in a tournament, you’d better be ready to play,” Tedford said. “ABS played an excellent game.”

Tom Logan led all scorers with 19 points. Joshua McWilliams added nine and Brandon Solomon chipped in eight points for the Red Devils. ABS was led by Joseph Baker who scored 17 points. Jeremy Couey had 12 points and Stinnett added 11 for the Trojans.

Elkmont advances to face West Limestone Friday night.



West Limestone 45, Clements 41

West Limestone’s varsity boys basketball team defeated Clements Tuesday night. We will have more coverage later.



Tanner girls 73, ABS girls 36

Hollye Keenum had another big night as the Tanner High School Lady Rattlers defeated the Athens Bible School Lady Trojans 73-36 Friday night in first round tournament action. The Lady Rattlers leaped out to a 15-5 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Lady Trojans battled to hang with Tanner in the second quarter and trailed at halftime 32-20. The Lady Rattlers stormed out of the blocks in the third quarter, however, and outscored ABS 20-8 in the period to cruise to the victory. Keenum was the game’s leading scorer with 29 points. Cecily Woods scored 12 points and had seven rebounds for the Lady Rattlers and Mikala Malone grabbed eight rebounds. Kirsten McClure led the way for ABS with 17 points and four rebounds. Christina Ivey added eight points and four rebounds for the Lady Trojans.

The Lady Rattlers have ripped off nine wins in their last 10 games. They are 16-8 on the year and will play in the semifinals of the county tournament on Friday.