Sparkman’s Maurice Anderson hits a shot in action from the Area 8 tournament against Bob Jones (Record Photo/Lindsay Vaught)

HARVEST- Sparkman is headed back to the Northwest Regional at Wallace State after a 78-46 blowout win over Bob Jones Thursday night. Last season the Senators were one game away from making it to Birmingham after defeating Tuscaloosa County at the regional.

But first there is the matter of the Class 7A, Area 8 championship game Saturday night at 6 p.m. Sparkman will host James Clemens.

Bob Jones ends the season winless in area play. Sparkman defeated Bob Jones by 2 points earlier this season but this time it was not ever close. Sparkman’s J.P. Fletcher hit three three pointers and blew open a close game early to give Sparkman an 8 point lead at the end of one quarter and 16 at the half.

Fletcher finished with 21 points and sat out the final quarter. Sparkman’s biggest lead was 56-23 in the third quarter.

“We put it together at both ends of the court,” Sparkman coach Jaime Coggins said. “J.P. hit a lot of big shots that got us going. Early on it was close. They were beating us to the basket and we went to a zone and that changed the rhythm an we started knocking down some shots.”

Kaleb Mack had nine points in the second half including two dunks.

“Being area champion is one of our goals so this is a very important game against James Clemens,” Coggins said. The two teams have split their two games this season.

Bob Jones played a spirited game and never let Sparkman sit on the lead. But as has been the case all season the shots were not falling consistently for the Patriots to mount a comeback.