The No.8-ranked Tenaha Tigers will have their hands full once again tonight (Monday) when they take on District 21-1A runner-up and No.11-ranked LaPoynor in the Class 1A Division I Region III Quarterfinal contest.
The game will be played in the Pine Tree High School Gymnasium at 7 p.m. The winner of the game will advance to the Region III Tournament at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches on Friday at 3 p.m. against the survivor of tonight's Hawkins-Martin's Mill game.
The Region III championship will take place at 12-noon on Saturday in the William R. Johnson Coliseum at SFA.
LaPoynor placed second to No.1-ranked Cayuga in 21-1A, then knocked off Mount Enterprise 73-39 in the opening round of the playoffs, before bumping off West Sabine, 64-56, in the Class 1A Area round.
Tenaha, the champions of District 22-1A, received a bye in the opening round, then started slow before blowing past Lovelady, 67-50, in Area play last Thursday in Rusk.
While Tenaha brings a season record of 22-5 in the matchup, LaPoynor owns a 29-4 mark. The Flyers' four losses have come to Class 2A White Oak (88-67), Martin's Mill (56-46), and two setbacks to top-ranked Cayuga, (100-78 and 101-54). The Flyers enter tonight's game with a six-game winning streak and have won 10 of their last 11 contests.
Tenaha's losses have come to Brownfield (45-44 OT), Lubbock Christian (63-42) and Loyola (81-61) in the early part of the season, along with Class 2A squads San Augustine (57-54) and West Rusk (69-67) in the later stages. The Tigers have won 14 of their last 15 and 18 of their last 20. Tenaha started the season 4-3.
Justin Hilton leads LaPoynor in scoring, averaging 24.8-points per contest, while James Cofer is second on the squad at 14.1. Cory Brewer is throwing in 7.9 points per outing.
The Flyers, who are averaging 29.7 rebounds per contest, are let by Shaun Jones and Kyle Forester, who are averaging 5.5 and 5.2 rebounds per game, respectively.