Donnie Roberts earns basketball win No. 700 in Alabama

Red Bay's girls basketball program has flourished for the last 28 years under the direction of Coach Donnie Roberts. Last Saturday night, the Lady Tigers beat Phil Campbell 64-47 to hand their beloved coach his 700th career girls varsity basketball win.

Roberts, currently 700-335 overall, began his career just across the state line at Tremont (Miss.) in 1973 where he remained for 11 years compiling a 142-127 overall record. He arrived at Red Bay in 1984 and has remained ever since.

His overall record at Red Bay is 558-208 with one championship in each of the last three decades. His 1987 team was 27-4 en route to the 2A state title. His 1993 team finished 26-2 and won the 2A crown again. And in 2001, his team finished 26-7 and won the school's first Final 48 state 2A championship at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex.

Eighteen of his teams at Red Bay have won 20 games or more in a season, and eight have won 25 or more games.

Sparkman (Harvest) coach June Seals won her 700th contest last season while guiding the Lady Senators to the Northwest Regional Class 6A finals. She was also inducted into the AHSAA Sports Hall of Fame in March of 2010.

MR. BASKETBALL TREVOR LACEY IS RED HOT IN 2010
After being named by the Alabama Sports Writers Association as Mr. Basketball last season, Trevor Lacey of Huntsville-Butler had a difficult task topping last season's performance.

At least, that is what some thought. Well, think again.

Lacey poured in 50 points in the Rebels' season-opening 77-53 win over Birmingham-Parker and has now scored 370 points in nine games – an average of 41.1 points a game. He also hit 54 in a 103-61 win over West Limestone and 47 in a 72-48 win over Madison County. And that was just in November.

Already this month he has had 41 twice and Coach Jack Doss' Butler Rebels have reeled off nine straight wins to start the season. Lacey, a 6-foot-4 senior guard, is also averaging 2.6 assists, three steals and 8.4 rebounds. He is shooting 84.6 percent at the foul line (55 of 65) and 45.8 percent from the 3-point line (49 of 108).

NORTH SAND MOUNTAIN'S HUCKABEE HAS RECORD GAME
North Sand Mountain's Thundering Herd girls made this column when they broke their own state record of 3-point goals made in a game earlier this basketball season with 19 in a 97-13 win over Whitesburg Christian.

Last week, Lacy Huckabee, who had a hand in that record, put on quite a scoring display in the first half as coach Michael Wilborn's team beat Skyline 86-22. North Sand Mountain is currently 13-0 and plays at home against Ider Thursday and goes to Pisgah on Friday before taking a week off for the Christmas break.

Huckabee had 22 points in the first quarter, third-most all time according to the AHSAA state record book. Pam Duncan of Carrollton had 25 in a quarter versus Aliceville and Pickens County on two separate occasions in the 1993-94 season, and Starr Orr had 23 in a quarter against Hazlewood in the 2003-04 season.

North Sand Mountain's senior guard had 32 by halftime and 42 after three quarters before retiring with 44 for the night. She finished 13 of 14 on 2-point tries, 6 of 7 on 3-point goals and was 19 of 21 from the field on the night.