Belgreen girls’ basketball team wins sixth consecutive area title

The Belgreen High School varsity girls’ basketball team has done it again. For the sixth straight year, the Lady Bulldogs have claimed an area crown and will host a sub-region contest to open postseason play.

In the Class 2A Area 14 tournament championship Friday night, Belgreen put together a dominant home performance to rout the Covenant Christian School Lady Eagles 66-21. The victory improved the Lady Bulldogs, who finished the regular season ranked just outside the top 10 in 2A in the final Alabama Sports Writers Association poll, to 22-9 overall and kept them flawless against area competition this campaign.

Belgreen made quick work of the Lady Eagles, putting the contest out of reach pretty early. The Lady Bulldogs allowed just a single point in the opening quarter and held a 30-point advantage at halftime. In the third quarter BHS more than tripled Covenant’s production, outscoring the visitors 22-7. Belgreen’s final 45-point margin of victory was its biggest of the campaign.

“I thought we came out of the gates early. We had good defensive intensity and ran the floor well,” Belgreen head coach Chad Green said. “We were ready and prepared, and I think it was just a good team effort all the way around. We played all 13 girls and they all came in and did a good job for us.”

Leading the scoring for BHS were senior Mackinley Hogan and eighth-grader Marlie Terry who finished with 14 points each, season highs for both players. Junior Lilliana Willingham also finished in double figures with 10 points.

Following the win the Lady Bulldogs may be seeking more space to place their hardware as this most recent area title just adds to the list of accolades this BHS program has piled up over the last handful of seasons.

“These girls have accomplished a lot over the last several years and this year,” Green said. “We’ve won 20-plus games again this year; they won the county title again this year for the third time in a row—the first time in school history the girls have won three in a row—and they just won the area championship for the sixth year in a row, so for these older girls it’s been a pretty decorated career.”

Up next for Belgreen is a home sub-region game against the loser of the Area 15 tournament championship game between Lexington and Decatur Heritage.

No matter which team the Lady Bulldogs wind up facing, Green said his team will be ready. They’re looking forward to making a playoff push built on the experience gained during the regular season.

“I think we’re playing well right now,” he said. “We’ve got good shooters and our defensive intensity has been good here lately. I think we went 15-4 to end the (regular) season, so that always bodes well.

“We’ve played some good competition this year, so I think this group is definitely prepared going into the postseason because they’ve faced a little bit of everything. They’ve faced good athletes, they’ve faced four of the top 10 leading scorers in the state of Alabama, and they’ve faced some top 10 teams in 3A, 4A classifications, so I think they’re prepared going into the postseason,” Green added.

Belgreen’s sub-region game against either Lexington or Decatur Heritage will be played at Belgreen High School on Friday, February 13.