DAPHNE, Ala. — The Daphne Trojans clinched the 6A Area 3 regular-season crown Friday with a 55-46 senior-night win over visiting Foley. Daphne will now host the Area 3 boys tournament Feb. 11 and Feb. 14. The Trojans will probably face 0-6 Foley in the opening round. The top two teams in the area tournament will advance to the post season.

The Trojans improved to 5-0 in Area 3 with the win, 12-7 overall, with one area contest left at Fairhope (3-2) Tuesday night. Fairhope and Robertsdale (3-3) will likely pair up for round one.

“That's exciting,” said DHS coach Cedric Yelding. “I have been here eight or nine years and this is my second area championship. I’ve been involved in a lot of them and we’ve been to a lot of sub-regional games from being No. 2 in the area. It’s always good to get an area championship.”

Foley coach Shumbe Hunter, who graduated from Daphne in 1996, was not happy with the loss. But the first-year Lions coach was pleased with his team's effort and their overall improvement throughout the season.

“We're improving every game, that's our goal,” he said. “We're still dealing with youthful mistakes. But if we keep improving like we have been, when we get to the tournament, it's a new start. Everybody's record starts over fresh and we intend to be ready.”

The former Daphne player said coming back as an opposing coach sparked some emotion.

“It was a funny feeling,” he said. “My last game in this gym was as a player on senior night. And now my first time back here happens to be on senior night. So, it's funny how things work out like that. Coach Keller, Arthur Keller, was my coach. We had a lot good times here. A lot of good memories.”

Foley took an 8-0 lead to start the game, but DHS tied it 8-8 to start the second period. The Trojans led 25-19 at the half and 38-30 to start the fourth period.

Preston Solomon had 13 points to lead Daphne, Tyler Birch added 10, Vance Jenkins eight, Dominique Crosby six, T.J. Yeldon and Chris Sain had five each and Zack Houston four for the Trojans. DHS was 10-for-17 at the free-throw line.

Rafael Adams led all with a game-high 14 points for the Lions, Ja’vontae Long added 12 points, Volantai Adams nine while Demarcus Bingham and Alontai Adams had four each for Foley. The Lions were 7-of-8 at the line.