Heavy rain halts region tourney
♦ A youth basketball event to be hosted by Rome-floyd Parks and Recreation is also postponed.
Coosa head coach John Mcfather will lead the Eagles against Chattooga on Friday in the semifinals of the Region 7-AA tournament in hopes of knocking off the top-seeded Indians.
Region 7-AA teams will have to wait an extra day to crown its champions as the tournament hosted by Chattooga High School has been pushed back a day.
Heavy rains and flash flooding around the area caused some road closures Thursday, postponing semifinal action in the Region 7-AA tournament until Friday.
Friday’s games will keep the same times, and times for Saturday’s championship and consolation games are yet to be announced.
Friday’s action will open up with the top-seeded Chattooga girls facing Gordon Central at 4 p.m., followed by a 5:30 p.m. game between Coosa and the top-seeded Chattooga boys. The Indians are just two wins away from their fourth straight region championship.
At 7 p.m., Dade County will take on the Rockmart girls, and the last game of the night will be at 8:30 p.m. between the Model boys and Rockmart.
Fourth-seeded Coosa is coming off a 70-46 win over Pepperell in the quarterfinals, which earned them a spot in the Class AA state playoffs. As the top remaining teams in the boys’ and girls’ tournaments, all eight squads are headed to the playoffs.
One of Coosa’s strengths this season has been being able to wear teams down because of the players they have available to go in at any time.
“I think our strength for our team is our team depth, and when you can play 10, 11, 12 guys that play as hard as we want them to play, that really helps us a lot, and you don’t have that many let downs,” Coosa coach John Mcfather said. So that’s something we’ve been working on all year, and now it’s so that many of our guys have
matured as the season went along, and it’s been a process. So this is the time that we need them to step up the most and you can just see the depth that we have.”
One local team wasn’t kept from the court Thursday as the Rome High Lady Wolves continued play in the Region 7-5A tournament at Carrollton against the Lady Trojans.
Rome High came up just short in the semifinals in a 62-57 loss to the Lady Trojans.
The Lady Wolves are already guaranteed a spot in the Class 5A state playoffs, but will have a chance to up their seeding Friday at 4 p.m. in the third-place game at Carrollton. Rome will face
the loser of Thursday’s Kellvilla Rica matchup.
Also in action Friday will be the Darlington girls in the Region 6-A tournament. As the top seed from the region’s “A” subregion, the Lady Tigers will face Mt. Paran, the No. 2 seed from 6-A/B, at 4 p.m. in the semifinals at King’s Ridge Christian in Alpharetta.
An event for up-andcoming basketball players also took a hit Thursday as Rome-floyd Parks and Recreation postponed the Jr. NBA Skills Challenge, set to take place at the Thornton Center Gymnasium.
The event will feature competitions in dribbling, shooting and rebounding for boys
and girls in two different age groups. The event is now set to take place Feb. 13.
Friday’s RFPR postseason tournaments are still set to get underway with games at the Gilbreath Center and the Anthony Center gymnasiums.
The tournaments feature teams in the 8-under boys, 10-under boys and 10-under girls divisions.
The single-elimination tournaments continue on Monday with the semifinals and wraps up Tuesday with championship games.
Admission is $2 for adults 18 and older, $1 for students younger than 18, $1 for ages 50 and up, and preschoolers are admitted for free.