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Other county teams fail to advance

While the Woodland girls and Handley girls play on, the season is over for the other six county basketball teams.

The Wadley and RCHS girls were eliminated in the semifinal round of their respective area tournaments, while all four boys teams failed to advance as well.

Lafayette 60, 

RCHS 36

The RCHS boys were eliminated by Lafayette 60-36 on Friday. The Tigers split their two games with Lafayette in the regular season, but could not muster a serious challenge in the area tournament.

Finding offense was the biggest challenge for RCHS.

The Tigers trailed 12-3 after the first quarter. They cut it to 12-8 at the start of the second quarter thanks to a couple of free throws and an Elijah McFarland three pointer.

“That was really the closest it got,” said RCHS head coach Matt Smith. “After that they just kind of pulled away. We really didn’t do a good job on offense all night. I think we got passive and didn’t take open shots. And the shots we took were kind of forced shots.”

RCHS was hindered by injuries for much of the season. Forward J.R. Roundtree played in just eight games after returning from ACL surgery during football season. And one game after he returned McFarland, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, went down with a fractured wrist. 

That injury still has not completely healed and it showed in McFarland’s performance against Lafayette. He managed just 11 points and 7 rebounds – just over half his season averages in both categories.

“He was not as aggressive as he could have been, but I don’t blame him,” Smith said. “You don’t want to hurt it any worse or actually break it.”

In the team’s regular season win over Lafayette McFarland had 33 points. 

“He had 11 on Friday. That’s a 22-point difference and we lost by 24,” Smith said. “It’s just hard to replace that kind of production.”

RCHS finishes Smith’s inaugural season with a record of 10-11.

Other scores

Woodland’s boys lost to Wellborn for the third time this season, 47-29. The Bobcats finish with a 6-14 record.

Wadley’s boys lost to Verbena in the first round. The Bulldogs finished the season without a victory.

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