DAILY Photo by Gary Cosby Jr. Priceville and Brewer players scramble for a rebound in first-half action of the Morgan County Tournament at Brewer High on Friday night. From left are Adrianna Delatorre and Marissa Chambers of Priceville, Heather Childers and Meagan Hormel of Brewer and Stephanie Hardiman of Priceville. Brewer, the defending county champions, won and will meet Hartselle for the title tonight. Tipoff is at 6.

Brewer back
in finals
Lady Patriots going after
5th straight title

By Paul Stackhouse
DAILY Correspondent

FLORETTE — The showdown is set.

The team that has dominated the Morgan County Tournament the past dozen years will take on a squad that's ranked second in the state.

The Brewer High girls basketball team earned a berth into tonight's championship game by rolling past Priceville 59-42 on Friday night at Randolph Ryan Gymnasium.

Tonight at 6, the Lady Patriots will take on Hartselle, which sits at No. 2 in the latest Class 5A rankings. Hartselle advanced with a 64-38 win over Danville on Thursday night.

In the boys semifinal game Friday night, West Morgan edged Danville 52-47. Brewer, a 71-46 winner over Falkville on Thursday, will seek its third straight Morgan County Tournament title against the Rebels immediately following the girls championship game.

At stake for the Lady Patriots will be a chance at winning the tournament championship for the fifth straight
year.

The Lady Patriots also have claimed the championship trophy eight of the last nine and 10 of the last 12 years. The two times Brewer didn't win it, the Lady Tigers did — in 1996 and 2001.

Nichole Hayes led Brewer (15-10) past the Lady Bulldogs with 18 points, 15 of which came from 3-point territory. Andrea Crawford finished with 16 points, while Meagan Hormel had a double-double performance with 13 points and 16 rebounds.

Genie Browning, who did not score, passed out eight assists.

Hayes said Brewer will have to be at the top of its game to defeat Hartselle. The two teams split two games during the regular season, each claiming victory at their home court.

"To win it again, we are going to have to play up to our full potential," Hayes said. "We didn't do that tonight. We just were not mentally prepared to play tonight."

Crawford agreed with her teammate.

"We didn't come out on fire like we should have tonight," Crawford said.

"Coach (Ricky) Allen expected us to come out with a lot of intensity and beat them by 30 points. It's obvious that didn't happen. We're going to have to do a lot of things better to win."

Brewer led 11-8 at the end of the first quarter and 22-17 at the half.

Brewer's Nicole Lavendar, who was brought up to varsity from the B-team roster, finished the game with eight points.

Lavendar hit back-to-back field goals midway through the third quarter to give the Lady Patriots a 29-19 advantage.

It appeared Brewer was going to make it a runaway of a game, but the determined Lady Bulldogs refused to give in.

The Lady Patriots led 36-27 at the end of three periods before finally taking command of the contest in the final quarter.

"We're excited about getting a chance to play Hartselle again," Allen said. "To beat Hartselle, we're going to have to play a better game than we did tonight. But, I have to give Priceville credit for giving us everything we wanted and some. Coach (Stacey) Lovett's kids played hard for 32 full minutes."

Jessi Smith led Priceville (15-7) in scoring with 10 points.

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