After its 63-43 victory over Gaston Christian Monday night, the SouthLake Christian girls' basketball team moved into a tie atop the Metrolina Athletic Conference standings.

For a day, at least.

Since the Eagles (12-7 overall, 7-1 MAC) did not have a league game scheduled for Tuesday, First Assembly seized the opportunity to reclaim sole possession of first place by moving to 8-1.

But that slim lead is of little significance at this juncture, given that the conference championship likely will not be decided until SouthLake and First Assembly meet next week.

"We want to win the conference this year," SouthLake coach Terry Batts said Monday, restating the team's main goal from the preseason. "We lost to (First Assembly on Jan. 13), so that's the team we're going after."

In the first meeting, First Assembly edged out the Eagles 57-56 to gain a hold on the conference's top spot. But with the rematch looming Tuesday, Batts is hopeful his team will use the experience to be more prepared the second time around.

"I thought we dropped maybe two or three games that we probably could have won, but we learned from the losses," he said. "If we would have won those games maybe we wouldn't have learned anything. So we'll take the losses we have."

An area where Batts has seen improvement has been on offense, as he admits there was a period this season when the Eagles became too reliant on shooting the three.

Against Gaston Christian, SouthLake employed a three-pronged, inside-out attack that saw guards Giselle Verville and Kourtney Hailey score 17 and 16 points, respectively, including a combined five three-pointers, while center Bri Mack also added 16 from the post.

That type of versatility on offense is exactly what Batts is looking for in order for the Eagles to finish the season strong and win the conference.

"We're just trying to get the team to share the ball equally," he said. "We want to make sure Bri gets about 20 touches, and that will make our shooters that much better."

SLCA boys improving

So far this season, the SouthLake boys have experienced some highs and lows, but it's a challenge first-year coach Rodney Monroe was prepared for from the start.

"In the beginning, it was really tough for them to get a grasp of my system," he said. "With every new coach and every new team, there's going to be some adjustments, so there's been a bit of a learning curve for everybody."

But the Eagles, now at 8-14, have already shown a marked improvement over last season's results.

"They won one game last year," said Monroe. "So, eight wins, at this point, we can be happy about. But we're in no way satisfied. I think we've left three or four wins out there."

In a 73-63 win over Gaston Christian Monday, the Eagles led by as many as 12 in the fourth quarter only to see multiple unforced turnovers cut their lead to two possessions twice in the closing minutes.

"Coming down the stretch, we just need to play smarter basketball," said Monroe. "We need to pick our heads up a little bit more and be able to pick out who's open, who's not open. I don't think we're picking that up quick enough."

A bright spot for the Eagles has been the emergence of junior guard Demitri Allison and sophomore forward Cody Cox. The duo led the way in SouthLake's win over Gaston Christian, contributing 17 and 14 points, respectively.

Andrew Weber led the Eagles with 11 points in a 58-46 loss at Asheville School Tuesday.

SouthLake's teams have home games Thursday and Friday against Hickory Grove and Westminster Catawba.