Cougars, Lady Cougars open play at Class 2A tournament tonight
The Lee Academy Cougars and Lady Cougars basketball teams are not quite ready to call it a season.
Both teams are scheduled, weather and Covid permitting, to play first round games Wednesday in the Class A basketball tournament at Benton Academy.
The Lady Cougars, wearing the No. 2 seed from the North A State, will face Centreville Academy at 7:15 p.m., while the fourth seeded Cougars out of the North A State will face topseeded Greenville Christian at 6 p.m.
The Lady Cougars have made a habit of playing deep into postseason over the past few seasons and head coach Keith Taylor is hoping to continue to build that process.
With the postseason tournament schedules wiped out during the 2020 season due to Covid 19, the Lee Lady Cougars would like nothing better than to make a statement this time around. They have done it before.
The Lady Cougars finished second in the 2019 North A Tournament, losing to Marvell Academy in the finals after defeating SIA, Hebron Academy and Humphrey's.
That Lady Cougars team lost to Claiborne Academy in the first round of the Class A State.
The Cougars did not qualify for the Class A tournament in 2019.
••••• Emmanuel Wade's Marianna Lee Trojans have already nailed down the 2A-6 conference boys title and will be wearing the top seed into the district tournament, which began Tuesday and need only one more win to qualify for the Class 2A North Regional next week at Rector
Tuesday, England, the defending Class 2A state champs, defeated Carlisle to qualify for regionals and will face Marianna Lee Thursday to determine who will play for the top seed into regionals.
In other first round games played Tuesday, second seeded Barton took on seventh seeded Des Arc and third seeded McCrory faced sixth seeded Hazen. No scores were available for either game. The two winners will face each other Thursday in semifinal action.