By Brandon Sumrall

Friday night ushered in the final games of Round 2 action in the Chilton County Basketball Tournament with some teams fighting tooth and nail to reach the finals and others who had already punched their tickets for Saturday scouting their next opponent.

For the second straight night a standing room only crowd packed into the gymnasium of Chilton County High School to witness which teams would successfully advance and complete the line-up for the final round Saturday evening.

The Verbena Red Devils and Chilton County Tigers started the night off in B-Team action with the Red Devils getting the win, 43-34.

Verbena will take on Jemison on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. for the B-Team tournament championship.

A pair of Devils took to the court in varsity girls action as the Maplesville Red Devils and the Verbena Red Devils looked to be the next team to punch their ticket for Saturday.

Maplesville took home a 1-point 29-28 victory in a nip and tuck game and will advance to the final game Saturday evening.

Verbena (7-7 overall, 1-2 area) won a first-period defensive game with a score of 5-4.

Amber Uptain and the Maplesville (6-4, 2-1) offense settled in during the second period and opened up a 16-8 lead at the end of the first half.

Lacey Short and Jameshia Green led a third-period comeback and would knot the score at 23 all at the end of the third period.

Neither team was able to pull much of an advantage throughout the final period with neither team leading by more than three at any point, but Maplesville would lead at the final buzzer squeaking out the 1-point victory.

Amber Uptain lead all scorers for Maplesville with 17 points, five rebounds and one steal.

Green led the way for Verbena with 13 points, five rebounds and three steals.

Short added 10 points, two rebounds and three steals.

Maplesville advances to the finals Saturday night where they will face Chilton County at 5:30 p.m.