By Brandon Sumrall

The Verbena Red Devils and Jemison Panthers kicked off the finals of the Chilton County Basketball Tournament on Saturday night in B-Team action.

The Devils came into the game looking to become tournament champions for the first time in 19 years, while the Panthers were looking for their third title in four years.

Verbena led the Panthers through three periods, but it was the Panthers that came away with a 40-36 win defending their B-Team Chilton County Tournament championship.

Tremon Bryant led the Panthers with 15 points.

Tristan Short led for Verbena with 10 points.

The Chilton County Tigers and Maplesville Devils took to the court next to battle for the ladies tournament title. The Red Devils escaped with a 1-point, 36-35 victory and the county tournament championship in a game that went down to the wire.

The Red Devils (7-4 overall, 2-1 area) got the better end of a defensive first period leading 5-4.

The Tigers (6-9, 0-4) offense struggled during the second period with 3 of their 4 points coming on a Kadesha Lee 3-pointer, and the Tigers would go to the locker room down 13-8.

Taylor Connel gave the Tigers their first lead of the game late in the third period, but the Devils would come right back and knot the game at 21-all to end the third period.

With just over one minute to play in the game, another Lee 3-pointer gave the Tigers a 3-point lead, but the Devils were not ready to quit just yet and with seconds to play and down by one, Markeshia Bailey would knock down one of two free throws to tie the game with 0:06.4 seconds to play.

A steal on the Tiger inbound by Kiana Andrews would result in a foul on her following shot and send her to the line for two with the game on the line.

Andrews hit one of her two shots and gave the Devils a 1-point advantage with just seconds left.

A last-second prayer by Keona Dejarnett fell short for the Tigers and the Devils came away with a 1-point victory and the championship title.

Bailey led the way for Maplesville with a double-double 12 points and 15 rebounds.

Andrews added 9 points, 19 rebounds and a block for the Red Devils.

DeJarnett led the way for the Tigers with 14 points, eight rebounds and a steal.