Lithonia’s boys basketball team defeated second-ranked Grady and third-ranked St. Pius last week to take control of Region 6-AAAA. Now, Bulldogs are the new No. 2 team in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Class AAAA rankings behind Jonesboro, the defending champion.
Lithonia is a program that reached two state finals and four final fours from 1993 to 2004, then faded from prominence. It has been revived under coach Wallace Corker, who won five state titles as an assistant at Columbia before taking the Lithonia job in 2013. Lithonia made the quarterfinals last season in its first playoff appearance in eight years.
The current Lithonia team (18-4, 15-1) can clinch the No. 1 seed in the region tournament by closing out the regular season with victories against Cross Keys and Stone Mountain.
There wasn’t much movement in the boys rankings overall this week.
In AAAAAA, Westlake, Shiloh, Tucker and Newton lost games. Each dropped one place except Newton, which defeated Tucker but then lost to unranked Rockdale County.
Campbell, which defeated previous No. 3 Westlake, entered the rankings for the first time this season. Dacula, which suffered a 30-point loss to Shiloh, dropped out. Also new to the boys rankings are Vidalia for Dublin in AA and Turner County for Stratford Academy in A.
There is only one new girls team in the rankings. Mays, the state runner-up in AAAAA last season, is ranked for the first time since Christmas. Mays has won six consecutive games since a loss to Hawaii’s top-ranked team last month, is 17-6 overall, with three of those losses coming against out-of-state teams.
Sixteen ranked girls teams lost last week, but 14 of the losses came against ranked or higher-classification opponents. The other two were in AAAAA, where Sequoyah lost to Rome and dropped from No. 7 to No. 10, and Woodland-Stockbridge lost to Dutchtown and fell out of the rankings a week after moving into the No. 10 spot.
All 12 No. 1-ranked teams went undefeated last week, but Wesleyan’s girls had the most impressive effort of the dozen, beating ranked teams Greater Atlanta Christian, Lovett and Buford by an average of 28.3 points.
Region tournaments will be played next week. Except in Class A, which uses a power ratings system to determine its post-season qualifiers, the region tournaments will determine each region’s four seeds for the state playoffs.
BOYS
Class AAAAAA
1. Wheeler (17-5)
2. Norcross (20-2)
3. Tift County (21-2)
4. Westlake (16-4)
5. Shiloh (16-5)
6. Pebblebrook (16-7)
7. McEachern (19-3)
8. Tucker (17-5)
9. Newton (20-3)
10. Campbell (16-5)
Class AAAAA
1. Allatoona (23-0)
2. Miller Grove (21-2)
3. Gainesville (16-4)
4. Cedar Shoals (22-2)
5. McIntosh (19-2)
6. South Paulding (20-3)
7. Riverwood (23-1)
8. Southwest DeKalb (20-4)
9. Effingham County (20-3)
10. Heritage-Conyers (17-5)
Class AAAA
1. Jonesboro (20-3)
2. Lithonia (18-4)
3. Eagle’s Landing (22-1)
4. Grady (19-3)
5. Liberty County (18-1)
6. St. Pius (19-4)
7. Monroe (16-5)
8. Redan (15-7)
9. Sandy Creek (15-6)
10. Worth County (17-4)
Class AAA
1. Calhoun (21-0)
2. South Atlanta (19-4)
3. Laney (20-2)
4. Morgan County (18-4)
5. Westminster (19-2)
6. Jenkins (19-3)
7. Banks County (21-2)
8. Central-Macon (21-2)
9. Johnson-Savannah (15-5)
10. Westside-Augusta (14-4)
Class AA
1. Thomasville (21-1)
2. Seminole County (18-4)
3. Crawford County (19-2)
4. Lovett (16-4)
5. Chattooga (21-1)
6. Manchester (15-5)
7. Pace Academy (11-9)
8. Greater Atlanta Christian (14-9)
9. Vidalia (21-3)
10. Early County (17-5)
Class A
1. Greenforest Christian (20-2)
2. North Cobb Christian (17-3)
3. Southwest Atlanta Christian (14-7)
4. St. Francis (15-7)
5. Whitefield Academy (14-8)
6. Our Lady of Mercy (17-3)
7. Wilkinson County (16-5)
8. Lakeview Academy (19-4)
9. Treutlen (19-2)
10. Turner County (18-5)
GIRLS
Class AAAAAA
1. Archer (19-3)
2. Tucker (19-4)
3. South Forsyth (19-4)
4. Norcross (18-4)
5. Collins Hill (20-1)
6. McEachern (16-7)
7. Harrison (19-3)
8. Douglas County (19-1)
9. West Forsyth (18-5)
10. Parkview (14-7)
Class AAAAA
1. Glynn Academy (21-1)
2. Warner Robins (17-1)
3. Southwest DeKalb (18-6)
4. Flowery Branch (21-1)
5. Brunswick (20-2)
6. Grovetown (23-1)
7. Carver-Colulmbus (20-3)
8. Gainesville (16-4)
9. Mays (17-6)
10. Sequoyah (19-4)
Class AAAA
1. Americus-Sumter (21-1)
2. Buford (19-4)
3. Marist (20-2)
4. Veterans (19-4)
5. Carrollton (18-4)
6. Jonesboro (16-3)
7. Bainbridge (19-4)
8. Griffin (18-5)
9. Mt. Zion-Jonesboro (18-4)
10. Baldwin (17-6)
Class AAA
1. Morgan County (20-3)
2. Kendrick (21-1)
3. Laney (19-4)
4. Hart County (20-3)
5. Jackson-Atlanta (21-1)
6. East Hall (18-4)
7. Dawson County (21-2)
8. Johnson-Savannah (18-5)
9. Beach (19-4)
10. Peach County (19-2)
Class AA
1. Wesleyan (21-2)
2. Pelham (20-1)
3. Holy Innocents' (17-5)
4. Model (22-0)
5. Rabun County (18-3)
6. Putnam County (19-4)
7. Jeff Davis (21-1)
8. Bleckley County (14-5)
9. Greater Atlanta Christian (12-8)
10. Lovett (15-7)
Class A
1. St. Francis (21-1)
2. Turner County (23-0)
3. Calvary Day (20-1)
4. Greenforest Christian (18-0)
5. Taylor County (19-2)
6. Tattnall Square (20-1)
7. Our Lady of Mercy (17-2)
8. Stratford Academy (19-3)
9. Terrell County (16-3)
10. Commerce (15-4)
Credit: Stan Awtrey
Credit: Stan Awtrey
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