DAPHNE, Ala.— Daphne pulled away from a three-point lead at the half to a strong finish and a 53-38 win over Baldwin County High to claim the Class 6A, Area 3 championship at Trojan Gym Monday. Daphne will host Northview Friday in sub-regional play. The Tigers will travel to Dothan.

Area 3 MVP Bradley Nero led the Trojans with a game-high 20 points. Tevin Rencher added 11, Wheylen Tolbert 10 and Devonte Young had eight for DHS. The Tigers wee led by Isiah Dortch with 14 points and six by Montrey Bishop. 

Named to the 2013-14, 6A Area 3 All-Tournament Team were Bishop, Dortch and Montez Brown of BCHS; Kareem Brown, Nero and Young of Daphne; Tevin Brown of Fairhope; Romello Harris of Foley and Rashad Hobby of Robertsdale. 

Daphne (19-10) led 26-23 at halftime but surged ahead on an 18-11 run in the third quarter to lead 44-34 to open the fourth.

The Tigers closed the gap in half to 39-34 with two minutes left in the third period. But Daphne put together a 5-0 run to reopen the lead for good.

"We knew they would challenge us at some point,” said Daphne head coach Cedric Yelding. “That was it. I told these guys to remember last year. Not to let them come back on us. That’s the good thing about seniors, they remember. I’m proud of how they answered that call tonight. They remembered last year and did not want that again.”

In the area finals last year, the Trojans led Baldwin County much of the game but lost in the end.

"We ended up losing to Baldwin County and had to travel to Northview of Dothan for a sub-regional game where we lost," Yelding said. "We didn't want that to happen again. That’s been our goal from the very beginning. So far this year, we are 13-0 in games against Baldwin County teams. It's been a while since that's happened. The last time was Ralph Watson’s (Fairhope) team in 2002 (32-0 after the area tournament) going undefeated against county competition all the way through the season, as far as I know.”

BCHS head coach Lorenzo Hunter was also pleased to some extent, especially the progress he has seen over the course of the season.

"We have a young, athletic group, we’re good but very young. Daphne has a veteran group and they are also very athletic. Coach Yelding has done a great job of using that veteran experience throughout the course of the game. We knew coming in that we could not run with Daphne. We knew that we were going to have to minimize Daphne's touches. But Daphne's more physical, they're stronger and they're older. They just outscored us, they made a few more shots. But we worked the game plan and I'm very proud of my kids. We are getting better and better. And I was more pleased with how much better we played tonight compared to last Friday night (semifinals) when we beat Robertsdale.”