Selma High couldn’t recover from a disastrous first quarter in its Class 6A Sub-Regional contest against Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa.

The Patriots scored the game’s first 15 points in a 51-27 rout on Tuesday at Selma High Gymnasium.

The Saints’ season ended at 18-10, while Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa advances to the Southwest Regional on Friday at Alabama State University in Montgomery.

“They jumped on us early and played great defense,” Saints coach Ronald Lane said. “We weren’t as aggressive as I’d like for us to have been.”

The Patriots (22-5) raced out to a 15-0 lead as Christian Jones scored nine of his game-high 20 points.

In contrast, Selma missed its first seven shots and had five turnovers. Marqwavis Davis scored the Saints’ first basket with 1:00 left in the first quarter, which the Saints trailed 19-5.

Selma played better in the second quarter, but the Saints trailed 26-14 at halftime.

“By the time we got our legs, Hillcrest was so far ahead,” Lane said. “We put too much pressure on ourselves. We made bad choices on shot selection.”

Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa outscored Selma 14-7 in the third quarter and took a 40-21 lead into the game’s final eight minutes. The Patriots emptied their bench in the fourth quarter.

Willie Johnson had six of his 16 points in the third quarter for the Patriots. C.J. Johnson also added 10 points off the bench for Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa.

“We’re not a very high-scoring team,” Patriots coach Scott Suttles said. “We have to play good halfcourt, man-to-man defense. A lot of shots Selma usually makes didn’t fall for them and we were very fortunate. Christian Jones did a great job.”

Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa is the Area 7, Class 6A runner-up, falling to Paul Bryant in the tournament finals. Selma won the Area 5, 6A championship with a 50-49 victory over Stanhope-Elmore last week.