Holly Pond's Melissa Clingman fires off a pass during her final basketball game for the Lady Broncos. Clingman had a team-high eight points. 

HOLLY POND — Madison Academy eliminated Holly Pond’s girls in the sub-regional round for the second year in a row, defeating the Lady Broncos 68-29 Monday night at Felton Easterwood Gymnasium.

The top-ranked and Area 15 tourney runner-up Mustangs (27-4) advance to this week’s Class 3A Northwest Regional Tournament at Wallace State, while the Green and White closed the season 20-11.

Coach Scott Adams didn’t consider Monday’s matchup much of a reward for ninth-ranked Holly Pond winning the Area 10 tournament — and he didn’t hold back on why.

“Proud of my girls for a really good season. I thought they overachieved this year. But it’s a situation where, and I’m going to choose my words carefully, but we’re playing against a program that has the most unfair advantage in the state of Alabama,” Adams said. “You can’t compete when they fill their team with new players every year and we’ve got who we’ve got. That’s just the way it is. Now, I’ve got all the respect in the world for coach (Brian) Privett. He’s a much better coach than I am. I wish them the best as it goes.

“It’s just an unfair situation for girls that grow up in a country place, in a county school, doing the very best that they can, and challenge hard when they have absolutely no shot because you’ve got a private school that can load up their roster every single year. It’s disappointing, and it’s upsetting that the athletic association does nothing about it, because our girls shouldn’t be subjected to this kind of humiliation. I speak for a lot of people, and I don’t care who knows it. But that’s just the way I feel.”

Under the guidelines of the Alabama High School Athletic Association, public schools are restricted to talent pools inside predetermined territories. Private schools, on the other hand, are not. They are, however, subject to a 1.35 percent multiplier during reclassification, which had a hand in Madison Academy’s recent rise to 4A for the 2016-18 academic years.

Another year older and certainly no shorter, towering center Destinee McGhee terrorized the Broncos down low yet again. The Madison Academy eighth-grader improved on her 13-point 2015 showing with 16 in the rematch. Thirteen came in the third quarter, mostly on easy rebounds and putbacks.

Meri Wheeler (15 points), DaMayia Calvert (14), and Jaden Langford (11) also reached double digits for the Mustangs, who outscored Holly Pond 20-3 in the third quarter.

Melissa Clingman — who helped the Broncos reach the 2013-14 state final, claim the last two of their three consecutive county championships (2013-15) and secure at least 20 victories all three of her seasons on varsity — went out with eight last points.

“Melissa played her heart out tonight,” Adams said. “I’m really proud of Melissa and how she kept the team together. I thought she was a good leader this year. She was just kind of a glue for us.”

Haley Higginbotham and Ruth Horton each contributed six points, Taylor Tankersley tacked on four, and Kolby Holcombe hit a late 3-pointer.

Lauren Camp, the squad’s only other senior, collected two points.

“Lauren has improved so much,” Adams said. “Had such good attitude. Probably worked harder than anybody we had in the offseason. Really proud of how far Lauren came.”