Cold Springs coach Tammy West yells instructions.

BIRMINGHAM — With precipitation already pelting the exterior of Legacy Arena, Elizabeth Hill also took it upon herself to make it rain inside the site of the Class 2A state basketball tournament.

And now, the No. 2 Lady Eagles will play for a championship once again.

Hill totaled a game-high 37 points, Toni West registered 15, and Cold Springs bested eighth-ranked Central-Hayneville 61-46 on Monday night to advance to the title contest — set for 9 a.m. on Friday against No. 1 Collinsville — and improve to 31-4 on the season.

“I’m just very proud of these girls,” coach Tammy West said. “I feel like … you know, we’ve been waiting on a game like this for a long time. I haven’t seen us come out and play a first half like we did tonight. It was incredible.”

The Lady Eagles led 6-5 early in the opening stanza on 3-pointers from Neely Ellison and Hill.

That’s when the latter officially took control against the Lady Lions.

Hill nabbed 13 points to spearhead a 19-2 run over the final 5:52 of the frame, guiding Cold Springs to a robust 25-7 advantage heading into the second quarter.

She was just getting started, too.

The talented senior collected the first eight points of that stanza for the Lady Eagles, who garnered a 41-21 cushion entering intermission.

Hill’s halftime line? 9-of-11 shooting, including 6 of 7 from the 3-point line, for a tidy 24 points.

“She has just come so far this year, just getting herself ready to play this many minutes,” West said. “She is a great player. She’s very hard to guard. Sometimes, she’s a bit too unselfish. I’ve told her all year she needs to be a little more selfish sometimes. We don’t need to have that pass mentality sometimes. She’s a scorer, and she’s one of the best I’ve ever seen. So we want her to shoot the ball. I felt like she gave up some looks in the first half, but that’s just the kind of player she is.”

Added Hill: “We hit some big shots in the first half. But we had to forget about those and hope the next ones go in. I can’t think about it, or I’m going to definitely miss them (laughs).”

Despite its large deficit, Central-Hayneville came out a different team in the second half.

The Lady Lions (25-4) outscored Cold Springs 16-8 in the third quarter and then kicked off the final frame with a 6-2 spurt to pull within eight points (51-43) with 6:16 left.

But Hill was simply too much in the end.

She racked up back-to-back buckets and, along with West, helped seal the outcome from the free-throw line down the stretch.

“I’m so proud of them and the way we kept our composure when they were making a run, which we knew they were going to do,” West said. “They’re a very good team, and we knew it was going to be tough. I just kept waiting on them to make that run. They did, and we kept our composure. That says a lot about our team.”

Lacey Rice (four), Ellison (three) and Brooke Crider (two) also contributed offensively.

Derrica McCall (14), Kadaijah Williams (11) and Jalyiah Gordon (11) each totaled double figures for Central-Hayneville in the loss.

On Friday, the Lady Eagles will look to win a second straight 2A title — and fifth in program history.

Standing in their way is Collinsville (28-3), which beat No. 3 G.W. Long 52-39 in the other semifinal.

The Lady Panthers are 28-3 this season.

West knows it’ll be a challenge.

“They’re a great team,” she said. “Great shooters. They remind me of us. Great shooters, great ball-handlers. We’re expecting it to be a really good game.”

Hill echoed those sentiments.

“They do remind me of us,” she said. “We play a lot of like. It should be fun.”