Red Bay wins remarkable seventh straight area title, beating Sulligent 47-40

The Red Bay High School varsity boys’ basketball team won the program’s seventh straight area championship on Tuesday night, defeating Sulligent at home 47-40.

The seven-point victory gave No. 6-ranked Red Bay (19-8) the season sweep over their Class 2A Area 10 rival and earned the Tigers the right to host their subregional game on Saturday, February 8.

“It means a lot. When you’re playing and you win an area tournament that really sets you up for your subregional game,” Red Bay head coach John Torisky said. “We get to host Saturday and that’s the main benefit of an area championship, but it’s also neat to win a championship anytime in the year, whether it’s a tournament or area or whatever it may be.

“It says a lot about what the kids have been able to achieve this year with the Franklin County championship and now the area championship,” he added. “Now we’re looking to move on to the next opportunity to win another championship.”

Torisky felt that both Red Bay and Sulligent got off to a slow start—perhaps a sign of the early-game jitters. For Red Bay’s part, the Tigers knew they were in for a battle and it may have contributed to their sluggish opening period that saw them trailing by one after eight minutes.

“The first quarter was sloppy for both teams, and I think you could tell there were some nerves,” Torisky said. “The last game we played against them (Sulligent) it was a really close game that basically went down to the last minute.

“Today it was a difficult game for us,” he added. “Offensively we were a little careless at times, but I think it was just the pressure of the game for these guys. Hopefully we’ve got that out of the way.”

The TIgers went on to take a 22-17 lead into the halftime break, and then extended their lead out to 10 points in the second half. Sulligent, thanks to some Tiger turnovers, managed to cut the deficit down to three points in the fourth. Red Bay survived the scare, though, earning some fouls and taking advantage at the free throw line late to seal the win.

The victory gives RBHS home-court advantage in their upcoming subregional game against Covenant Christian, who lost to Belgreen 32-31 in the Area 14 title game.

Torisky believes his team is playing well right now and is confident the Tigers have the ability to make a deep postseason run.

“I feel like we’re capable of playing with anyone in the region and I’ve felt that since the start of the year. It’s just whether or not our team can kinda gel at the right time,” he said. “We’ve played some really good basketball games at the end of the year and we’ve played some games that haven’t been so good, but we’re finding ways to win. 

“Hopefully the nerves will be out on Saturday and we can relax a little bit and play some good basketball,” he added. “If we play well we’re gonna be really tough to beat this postseason.”