The path toward the TMSAA state tournament has been laid out for the WCMS basketball squads. Nothing will be easy for the Lady Pioneers or Pioneers, but if the teams can catch fire this week, they'll be able to play for the state championship in February.

Both Warren County teams ad vanced to the state thanks to impres sive finishes in the Area 6 tourney last week. The Pioneers finished sec ond, narrowly missing a champion ship after falling in the finals 48-45 to Whitthorne, while the Lady Pioneers earned their way into the TMSAA sec tionals by beating Whitthorne 47-20

Thursday. The Pioneers, now 17-4 this season, started out the Area 6 finals with an 8-0 run, fueled by two early 3-point ers from Dominique Robertson.

Josh Powell kept WCMS in the game until the very end, battling a front line of Whitthorne featuring a 6-foot-7 center and 6-foot-5 forward on the boards all night. Powell willed his way to a team-high 16 points, but fouled out in the final minute. Warren County still made the finish thrilling, nearly erasing a seven-point deficit in the final 90 seconds. The Pio neers cut it to a two-point game, 47-45 with 20 seconds to go and had a pair of tying layups rim out, along with a potential game-winning 3 from Mal- achi Wilcher spin in and out, before

Whitthorne closed out the victory. Robertson and Christian Munoz were stout in the finals, scoring nine points each for the Pioneers. According to the TMSAA website, the WCMS boys will play Monday at 6:15 p.m. and the Lady Pioneers will play Monday at 5 p.m. Both games will be at Stewarts Creek Middle School. To reach the state finals, both WCMS teams would need to win four games this week. This is the third straight year both WCMS teams have advanced to the TMSAA sectionals.