The Ellwood Christian Academy Eagles are one step closer to making school history after last weekend’s sweep of the AISA Region 2 Class 1A tournament.

The Eagles played tough defense throughout the weekend claiming a 58-31 win over host Coosa Valley before winning the championship 50-31 over Lyman Ward.

Now, head coach Carl Rawls said, his team is right where they wanted to be when the season began.

“One of the things I shared with them the first week of practice is it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish,” he said. “We’re peaking at the right time and playing great defense as you can see from the area tournament scores.”

The Eagles, now 17-5, will take on South Montgomery County Academy Thursday at 1 p.m. at Faulkner University. To get ready to play in a larger arena, the Eagles will work out at Wallace Community College for the remainder of the week.

The change in practice venues will not change the focus of his team, which Rawls said is defense, rebounding and free throws.

“Those win games and those win championships,” he said. “We shot the ball very well during the tournaments and we shot better from the free throw line. We are coming together in the big three and getting better every day in practice.”

As the big game approaches, Rawls said the attitude of his team has remained the same. The team, he said, is ready to improve every time it hits the court leading up to Thursday’s opening round game.

“There’s no slacking up,” he said. “We are here to get better.”

In most people’s minds, Rawls said, the 1A championship is expected to come down to Ellwood and Crenshaw Christian Academy of Luverne. The Cougars, Rawls said, are a team the Eagles are quite familiar with.

The last time they faced the Cougars in a road game the Eagles came out cold and never recovered. Rawls said the team shot 9-of-30 from the field and never built any momentum.

That was then, this is now. Ellwood senior Brian Landers said the team has put the loss behind them and is ready for another crack at Crenshaw.

“I want it bad and I think we have the guys to do it,” Landers said about setting up a possible rematch. “We are going to take it one game at a time, but we would like for it to work out where we play them.”

Rawls also said he felt his team has what it takes to avenge the loss and bring home the school’s first state title.

“We believe we can beat them,” he said. “We know we can beat them and we’re working hard to get there.”