Warhawks win area title

Daleville won the Class 3A, Area 3 tournament championship after a 79-45 victory against Geneva Monday.

Winning the tournament is special to the team, and Daleville coach Troy Turman said it accomplished a goal.

“It means a lot to us,” he said. “One of our goals at the beginning of the season was to win the area championship in the regular season and win the area tournament championship. We did that.”

The game was tight early, and Geneva led 8-6 when the Warhawks went on a 15-0 run to take a 21-8 lead. Daleville had a 25-11 advantage at the end of the first quarter.

“We were really active on offense, and we were aggressive,” Turman said. “We did a good job with our trap in the first quarter. That helped us generate some offense as well.”

The Hawks began the second quarter on a 10-2 clip and outscored Geneva 17-11 in the frame to take a 42-22 lead at the half.

Geneva scored 16 points in the third quarter, but the Warhawks finished the frame with 18 after a 7-0 run late to take a 60-38 lead into the final eight minutes.

Daleville began the fourth on a 10-3 run, and outscored the Panthers 19-7 to secure the win and take the title.

The Hawks withstood the slight rally, which made Turman proud.

“I saw some poise,” he said.T”hey kind of made a run at us and got it down to 15 points. We kind of calmed down and went on a 7-0 or an 8-0 run after we called a timeout. That showed a lot of poise by us. I was proud of that.”

Robert McGirt led the Hawks with 37 points, and Coco Hayes followed with 13. Labrijan Bloodsaw had eight, and Jaylyn Hinton scored seven. Jonathan Pittman added six, and Aaron Cope had four. Darwin Mason and Gator Crawford each had two.

Daleville earned a spot in the championship game by virtue of its 70-62 win against Dale County Feb. 7 in the tournament’s opening round.

“Dale County played a good game,” Turman said. “I knew going in that was going to be a tough game because it’s tough to play somebody that many times. That was our fourth time playing them.”

The Warhawks scored 24 points in the opening quarter and allowed just 12. Dale County outscored DHS 18-8 in the second, but the Warhawks had a 32-28 lead at the half. The Warhawks scored 19 points in the third and allowed 13. They had a 51-46 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Each team scored 19 points in the final quarter, but the Hawks sealed the win.

“They’ve got some players,” Turman said. “They’re athletic, and they’re very capable. They play hard.”

McGirt led Daleville with 25 points. Hinton followed with 14. Hayes and Cope each scored 10 points. Mason added eight. Crawford scored two and Bloodsaw added one.

“Sometimes you’ve just got to survive and advance, and that’s what we did,” Turman said. “We survived and advanced.”

The Hawks will host Pike County Friday at 7 p.m. in a subregional game. The Hawks gave a complete effort Monday, and Turman noticed.

“I was proud of the fact that we played hard and tried to play our A game,” he said. “We didn’t just settle for playing sloppy. We tried really hard to play our best game. That’s what we’re shooting for in these playoffs is to hit our stride at this time. I felt like (Monday) they took a step toward that.”