The Class AAAAAAA basketball semifinals are set for Saturday at the Buford City Arena. The eight teams come as no surprise, except Tift County’s boys, who were unranked entering the state tournament despite winning Region 1.
The matchups are No. 1 McEachern vs. No. 4 Norcross and No. 2 Meadowcreek vs. Tift County for the boys and No. 1 Westlake vs. No. 5 North Forsyth and No. 4 Cherokee vs. No. 2 Collins Hill for the girls.
This blog predicted seven of the eight correctly, but that’s without going out on a limb. Those were the highest-ranked teams in their quarters of the draw – except Tift. (I picked Wheeler, and the Blue Devils picked off the Wildcats in the second round.)
Tift County is 21-8 and lost four games to lower-classification Georgia teams in the regular season, so that kept the Blue Devils out of the rankings. But they’re accustomed to doing well in the playoffs. Tift won state titles in 2014 and 2017. That was under coach Dr. Eric Holland, now principal at Rome. But new coach Chris Wade has the Blue Devils back in contention. They beat Region 6 champion Discovery 47-43 in the quarters.
Tift will be matching up with the 2018 champion, Meadowcreek (26-5), which defeated Pebblebrook 75-60 in the quarters.
In the other semifinal, McEachern enters at 30-0 in its bid for its first state title in boys basketball. McEachern also could become the boys team to finish unbeaten in the highest classification since Dunwoody in 1995. McEachern is ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in almost every national poll, so a national title also is in play, although that might require playing in a national post-season tournament.
But Norcross (22-8) will keep the Indians from thinking about that just yet. Norcross is a five-time former state champion that has been a state runner-up the past two seasons.
The McEachern-Norcross game will have the most star power of any semifinal in any class. McEachern’s Isaac Okoro and Sharife Cooper and Norcross’s Brandon Boston and Kyle Sturdivant are all major-college recruits and potential first-team all-state performers.
In the girls’ final four, defending champion Westlake (28-0) remains the team to beat. The Lions are 28-0 after a 77-57 victory over Norcross.
The Westlake-North Forsyth game will be a rematch of a 2018 semifinal that Westlake won 52-44. That was Westlake’s closest playoff game last year. North Forsyth (26-4) has never reached the state finals. North has won 15 straight games.
Cherokee’s girls have reached the semifinals for the first time since 1987. They defeated Rockdale County 74-38 in the semifinals. Cherokee (27-3) has won 20 straight games.
Collins Hill (29-1) beat Campbell 54-49 to make the semifinals. The Eagles haven’t won a state title since 2007, the senior season of WNBA star Maya Moore. Collins Hill has won 26 straight games.
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