CALHOUN, Ga. -- Ringgold coach Margaret Stockburger wanted a track meet Friday on the basketball court in the Georgia Region 6-AAA tournament semifinals.
She got it. And she'll probably get another tonight in the championship game.
Her Lady Tigers raced to a large first-quarter lead and cruised to a 56-35 win over Sonoraville. The Lady Tigers will face top-seeded Calhoun -- which outraced North Murray 83-35 -- tonight at 6 on Calhoun's court.
"We wanted to play like we were on a track, running up and down," Stockburger said. "Except it wasn't 100 yards, just 100 feet.
"We wanted to get scoring that way, and our girls did a wonderful job of doing that."
Ringgold will host a first-round game in the Class AAA state playoffs, likely on Tuesday.
"From the principal and I talking, it's probably been at least 10 years since that happened for girls' basketball," Stockburger said. "That's a wonderful accomplishment."
Sydney Shutters led the Lady Tigers (22-4) with 18 points, and Bethany Headrick added 12. Sonoraville (17-10), which will play for third place today, were led by Haley Ponder with 10 points.
"We played great defense on them," Stockburger said. "We also did a wonderful job of boxing out."
"They made us work harder that we're accustomed to," Lady Phoenix coach Stephanie Caudell said. "We don't like to play slow, but we haven't played anybody that pushed the ball like they did on us."
Another 94-foot track meet could break out tonight. Calhoun (22-4) led North Murray 34-7 after the first quarter and 55-22 at halftime. The Lady Yellow Jackets made nine 3-pointers and were led by Daisy Carpenter with 21 points, Sydnie Parker with 17 and Jana Johns with 15.
The Calhoun boys' team defeated Sonoraville 67-29. Kaelan Riley led Calhoun with 24 points. Jireh Wilson and Chapin Rierson each contributed 10.
"We just came out and played our style of basketball, and on defense we limited them to one and done," Calhoun coach Vince Layson said. "It's a big accomplishment to hold a team to single digits in all quarters. We put it all together tonight, and good things happened. "
Calhoun will face North Murray in the championship game tonight at 7:30. The Mountaineers limited Ringgold in a 46-39 win. The Tigers trailed by one heading to the final quarter, then had seven straight empty possessions. A 3-pointer from Kile Sholl pulled Ringgold within 37-36 with two minutes to play.
The Mountaineers made nine or 12 free throws down the stretch while limiting the Tigers to one 3-pointer in that stretch.
"Both teams play pretty good defense, and we grind out games," Ringgold coach Greg Elkins said. "We just couldn't shoot. They left every perimeter player open except for Sholl. To eliminate (Jordan) Ransom and Sholl is good on them."
Hinton McConkey led the Mountaineers (19-7) with 14 points, and Noah Allen added 10. Sholl scored 13 for the Tigers (18-8) after scoring 23 and 22 points in two previous matchups.
"This is what we've played for all year -- a shot at the region championship," McConkey said. "We really executed what Coach wanted us to do. Then we knocked down free throws."
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.