BAY MINETTE – Hustle paid off for the Baldwin County High School Tigers on Monday night as they claimed yet another Class 6A, Area 4 championship.

The first game of the Area tournament pitted Daphne High School against McGill-Toolen where after a struggle Daphne pulled through with the 77-71 victory. Game two had BCHS battling Satsuma. With a 30-0 start, the Tigers dominated the Gators, 83-44.

Daphne 77,

McGill-Toolen 71

Michael Hobbs came out strong scoring four quick points for the Daphne Trojans, but McGill's Tevin Bettis answered back with a three-point jump shot but Daphne kept the lead for three periods until McGill's Jacob Spaulding tied the game at 57-57 with just under five minutes left in the game. The Yellow Jackets then took the lead with a jump shot by Jordan Haynes. Daphne came back with a dominating 9-0 run to give the Trojans the 66-59 lead. Daphne sealed the victory shooting 11 out of 14 free throws in the last two minutes of play giving them the 77-71 victory and a chance to advance to the finals of the tournament.

Hobbs led his Trojans with 21 points points while team mate Terrell Crandall Scored 17. Terry York scored 19 for the Yellow Jackets and Tevin Bettis had 16.

BCHS vs. Satsuma

It was all Baldwin County as the Tigers took a early 30-0 jump on the Satsuma Gators in the first round of the Area 4 Championship Tournament. Satsuma was unable to make a comeback as they lost the first round game, 83-44.

The Butler boys came out strong with Mario scoring 14 points and Ruben scoring 13 for the Tigers. Henry Brown and Charleston Gandy both aided with 11 points apiece. John Baxter led Satsuma with 13 points while Allen Boasten had 10.

Final BCHS vs. Daphne

Baldwin County came out strong in the final game of the Area 4 tournament with a 9-0 lead in the first three minutes of the game. It maintained the lead until the second period when Daphne opened up with a 6-0 run to take the 18-17 lead to begin the battle. With the score 23-23, Baldwin County scored two out of five free throws to bring the score at half time 25-23. The battle for the top spot kept going back and forth until half way through the fourth period. With the score 49-47, the Tigers took a nine-point run to pull away 58-47. With 7.1 seconds left on the clock Daphne's Jerome Williams hit a three point shot to ring the final score 58-50.

Charleston Gandy and Jordan Culliver scored 12 points for the Tigers while Daphne's Michael Hobbs and Terrell Crandell also scored 12 points.

The All-tournament team was announced with Michael Stanley taking the top honor of MVP for the Tigers. Others on the team were Baldwin County's Charleston Gandy Jordan Culliver, and Chris Bush along with Daphne's Terrell Crandall,Trenere Johnson, and Marciece Jackson.

The Tigers will play again Friday night at 7 p.m. where they will host Robertsdale. The winner will advance to the Regional tournament in Troy. The Trojans will travel to Foley on Friday for a chance to advance to the Regional tournament.

After the game Daphnes coach Cedric Yeilding said, "One word sums it up hustle. I have been preaching this to my guys for the past five years. I am very disappointed these guys have a lot of potential within them but tonight was clear on who wanted it the most. They (BCHS) deserve the win especially when they hustled 100 percent of every game they play.”

Baldwin County head coach Lorenzo Hunter said, "I felt good going into this game today. We had a good start and played well early. With losing the last two regular season games we have overcome some mental challenges and got tough. These kids are what keeps me here at BCHS. Now it is all about who wants it the most and our kids will continue to fight until they achieve their goal of conquering the championship in Birmingham this year."