to capture 5A-Area 6 crown

By STEVEN G. WATSON

Sports Editor

Both the Charles Henderson girls’ and boys’ varsity teams missed a golden opportunity to wrap up the Class 5A-Area 6 title Tuesday as Stanhope got a little revenge and swept the Trojans.

The Mustangs ousted the Trojans 80-63 as CHHS was forced to play without two of their starting forwards in Corey Gillis and Marcus Williams. The two weren’t in the lineup for missing practice, something CHHS head coach Carl Hollis had some trouble doing.

"In my heart I wanted to play Marcus and Corey," Hollis said. "There just comes a time when you have to put your foot down."

"Stanhope came out ready and wanted to beat us bad after the close game we had over here," he added.

With the loss the Trojans dropped to 3-1 in Area play after sweeping Wetumpka (the only other team in Area 3). Now they must wait for the outcome of the WHS-Stanhope game Friday which will decide wether there will be a tie for the Area crown.

Rory Murphy led all scorers in the loss for the Trojans with 22 while Basil Jackson of Stanhope finished with 20.

In the girls game the Lady Mustangs surprised the CHHS girls 65-40 to also give the Lady Trojans their first Area loss of the season at 3-1.

After a lack-luster performance by Stanhope in the two team’s last meeting, the Lady Mustangs showed a lot of improvement with Tabetha Carpenter hitting for 18. Jenean Deveridge also hit for 18 for the Lady Trojans.