After having to battle back from a large deficit against Beauregard last week, the Reeltown girls basketball team learned its lesson about slow starts. Although the Rebels escaped with a narrow victory against the Hornets, they saw just how much tougher a victory becomes after coming out of the gate on the wrong foot.

The Rebels seemed to take that to heart Monday night as they led Fayetteville in the blink of an eye in the Class 2A Area 8 semifinals. Less than three minutes into the game, the Rebels already held a nine-point lead and the first quarter featured a 17-point scoring run for Reeltown.

Lizi Arbogast is the sports editor at Tallapoosa Publishers, Inc.