By Bart Moss for the FCT

The basketball regular season will come to a close this week, but the real season, The Road to the Final Four in Birmingham, will begin next week with area tournament action.

Three Franklin County teams will host area tournaments next week: Belgreen and Russellville boys and the Red Bay girls. Admission each night is $6 as mandated by the Alabama High School Athletic Association.

The top two finishers in each area will advance to subregion games. Area winners will host a subregion game. Area runner-ups will have to travel to their subregion game. The subregion games will be held on the Monday (girls subregion games) and Tuesday (boys subregion games) after the area tournaments are completed. The winners of the subregion games will advance to the Northwest Regionals at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville.

Here is the schedule for next week’s area tournament contests involving Franklin County teams:

5A, Area 16 Boys

Host School: Russellville

Seedings: 1. Russellville, 2. East Limestone, 3. Brooks, 4. Lawrence County

Schedule: The tournament will begin Feb. 7 with two games: Brooks vs. East Lawrence at 6 p.m. and Lawrence County vs. Russellville at 7:30 p.m. The finals will be Feb. 10 at 7 p.m.

5A, Area 16 Girls

Host School: East Limestone

Seedings: 1. East Limestone, 2. Lawrence County, 3. Russellville, 4. Brooks

Schedule: The tournament will begin Feb. 6 with two games: Russellville vs. Lawrence County at 6 p.m. and East Lawrence vs. Brooks at 7:30 p.m. The finals will be Feb. 9 at 7 p.m.

2A, Area 14 Boys

Host School: Sulligent

Seedings: 1. Sulligent, 2. Phil Campbell, 3. Lamar County, 4. Red Bay

Schedule: The tournament will begin Feb. 7, with two semi-final games. Top-seed Sulligent will face Red Bay at 6 p.m., and Phil Campbell will face Lamar County at 7:30 p.m. The finals will be Feb. 10 at 7 p.m.

2A, Area 14 Girls

Host School: Red Bay

Seedings: 1. Red Bay, 2. Lamar County, 3. Sulligent, 4. Phil Campbell

Schedule: The tournament will begin Feb. 6 with two semi-final games. Top-seed, and third-ranked, Red Bay will face Phil Campbell at 6 p.m. Lamar County will face Sulligent at 7:30 p.m. The finals will be Feb. 9 at 7 p.m.

1A, Area 13 Boys

Host School: Belgreen

Seedings: 1. Belgreen, 2. Hackleburg, 3. Tharptown, 4. Phillips, 5. Vina

Schedule: The tournament will begin Feb. 7 when Vina faces Phillips at 6 p.m. The winner will face top-seed Belgreen Feb. 9 at 6 p.m. Tharptown will face Hackleburg in the other semi-final game immediately after at 7:30 p.m. The finals will be Feb. 11 at 7 p.m.

1A, Area 13 Girls

Host School: Phillips

Seedings: 1. Phillips, 2. Hackleburg, 3. Belgreen, 4. Vina, 5. Tharptown

Schedule: The tournament will begin Feb. 6 when Tharptown will face Vina at 5:30 p.m. The winner will face top-seed Phillips at 5 p.m. Feb. 8. Belgreen will play Hackleburg immediately after that game at 6:30 p.m. The finals of the 1A, Area 13 tournament will be Feb. 10 at 6 p.m.