Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Florala High School Wildcats are Area Tournament Champions after defeating Kinston High School on Saturday, 72-40.

In the first quarter, the Wildcats came out strong, scoring 22 points. With baskets from Anthone Stone, Rashaad Coleman, Zaccheaus Reese, Mekhi James and McMeans, Florala was up 22-5.

Going into half-time, with 45 seconds left, Rayshon Coleman scored to make it 40-18 and Kinston scored at the last second to make it 40-20.

To open up the third period, Jamon Mitchell hit a lay up and Z. Reese followed to make it 44-20.

With 5:14 left in the third period, Rashaad Coleman hit a three-pointer to go up 47-20. Stone followed with a jumper to make it 49-22.

Kinston answered, but James followed up with a three-pointer to make it 51-26. Stone followed up with a lay up and a three-pointer to finish the third period, 58-28.

Rashaad Coleman opened the fourth period with a floater to make it 60-28.

Will Reese hit a three-pointer with 6:05 left in the game to go up 63-28.

Elijah McMeans hit a lay up with 4:45 left to go in the fourth period.

Kinston hit a couple of points to cut the lead with 1:37 left in the game, but Rayshon hit a lay up and a three-pointer with five seconds left to make it 72-40.

Rashaad Coleman led the scoring effort with 17 points, nine rebounds, five assists, and five steals. Mekhi James had 12 points, Anthone Stone had 12 points, seven rebounds and six assists and Rayshon Coleman had nine points.

“I thought we played well,” FHS head coach Troy Turman said. “The stoppage in play kind of hurt our rhythm a lot, but we battled through that and I thought we played well. There were a few things that we didn’t do well, but we will fix those and correct them. Scoring 72 points is always a positive.”

Going into sub regionals, Turman said it is now just one game at a time.

“We are focused on just playing well that night,” Turman said. “We just need to make our shots, make them count, boxing out, and doing our job. Georgiana has a good team. They have kind of been the standard of a good 1A basketball team in the south and we have to go through them to get to where we want. We are excited for the match-up.”

Florala will face Georgiana Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., in Florala.