RICHARD STEPHENS / PVT Naomi Cruz drives to the basket for Beatty, in a recent Nevada Class A Central Division game against Indian Springs. The Lady Hornets are third in the division, going into two weekend games. Advertisement

Beatty's girls, in contention for a Southern Nevada Class A basketball regional tournament berth, play two pivotal Central Division games this weekend.

The boys, unfortunately, can only play the role of spoilers. The Hornets are three games out of the No. 4 playoff spot, with just four division starts remaining.

Friday, the Hornets are at home against Henderson International Schoo1 and Saturday, they travel to Round Mountain. On Feb. 8, Beatty goes to Tonopah and on Feb. 9, the regular season concludes at home with Lund the opposition.

The Southern regionals are Feb. 12-13-15-16. First-round games are played on the court of the higher seeds. The semifinals are Feb. 15 at Durango High School in southwest Las Vegas, with the championship games to be played Feb. 16 at Del Sol High in east-central Vegas.

Beatty's girls defeated Henderson International School 49-15 to move their record to 4-2 in the division, 7-7 in all games under coach Aimee Senior.

Henderson's girls fell to 0-6 in the division, 0-11 in all games.

Round Mountain's girls are 5-0 in the division, 12-9 in all games, after their 49-42 conquest of Lund (5-1, 8-12).

Tonopah is only 2-4 in division games, but the Lady Muckers are in the fourth and final playoff qualifying position. Indian Springs (2-5) is a half-game behind.

Beatty's boys, with Brian Hayes directing, lost 37-28 to Henderson, now 5-3 and tied with Tonopah for third place in the division. International School, formerly Warren-Walker, is 8-12 in all games.

Round Mountain's boys defeated Indian Springs 58-54 Friday for their first Central win. The Knights are 1-7 division, 3-17 in all games.

Lund leads the Central boys with a 7-1 record, a half-game ahead of Spring Mountain, which is 7-2 in the division. At 13-11, Spring Mountain is the only boys' team above .500 on the season.

Indian Springs (1-6, 4-11) and Round Mountain have been eliminated from playoff contention.

In the South 1-A, Lake Mead Christian Academy's boys and the Las Vegas Mountain View Christian girls are the likely top seeds from that division.

Lake Mead's boys are 25-1 and have clinched the top seed. Defending state champion Las Vegas Trinity Christian (which played at Pahrump Valley Tuesday night) is 14-7, with Alamo 16-5 and Mountain View Christian 10-14.

Mountain View Christian is 18-5, while Pahranagat Valley Alamo is 19-5. Lake Mead's girls are 4-7 and probably will finish third. Las Vegas Calvary Chapel, Laughlin and Trinity are in a scramble for the No. 4 seed.

Trinity played Pahrump Valley's JVs Tuesday; in a Pahrump Valley Times tournament game in December, the PVHS varsity defeated Trinity 68-7, holding the Thunder to just seven free throws.

NOTES -- Lake Mead Christian Academy clinched the South title and the No. 1 seed for the Southern zone with an 80-28 win over Laughlin to improve to 25-1 ...Alamo's boys defeated Mountain View Christian 52-25 ... In the girls game, Mountain View Christian defeated Alamo, 59-55 ...While the teams are tied with one loss each, the Saints hold the tie-breaker because they won the second game of the series.