First place – or at least a share of it – will be on the line Tuesday night in Region 5 when the No. 5 Lithonia boys get a rematch with No. 3 Southwest DeKalb.
Southwest prevailed 56-55 when the two teams et way back on Dec. 4 in the first meeting. Since then neither has lost a region game; Southwest DeKalb (15-5) leads the league at 7-0 and Lithonia (12-7) is 6-1 in the conference.
A Southwest win would almost secure first place. A Lithonia victory would leave the two clubs tied with two weeks left in the regular season. The region tournament will be conducted at Columbia.
“The first time we played we had a breakdown on defense and Kadarius Johnson threw a good pass and they scored on a buzzer-beater,” Lithonia coach Wallace Corker said.
Lithonia and Southwest DeKalb are two of the oldest rivals in the county. Last year both teams advanced to the state playoffs – Lithonia won the region tournament, beating SWD in the final. Southwest DeKalb lost in the second round, an upset victim of Hiram, but Lithonia reached the third round before falling to eventually state champion Warner Robins.
Southwest DeKalb has won three straight games and defeated rival Stephenson 66-43 over the weekend.
Lithonia has also won three straight games and beat a much-improved Chamblee club 52-39 on Saturday.
“We’re continuing to work hard and we’ve got to continue to do so,” Corker said. “We’ve done a good job with team play, sharing he ball and we’re playing good defense. There’s still a lot of work that remains to be done.”
Lithonia’s top players have been junior Eric Gaines, a 6-1 guard, and senior Justin Myles, a 6-7 forward. Gaines averages 16.9 points on 61 percent shooting and 3.9 assists, second-best in DeKalb. Miles averages 12.1 points, 7.5 rebounds, and a DeKalb-best 2.7 blocks.
The Bulldogs other contributors include 3-point marksman N’Kyzie Hawkins, Bryson Rockcliffe, Christopher Alston, Osiris Corker and Broderick Jones, who has signed to play football at Georgia.
Corker isn’t putting all of Lithonia’s eggs in tonight’s basket against Southwest. The Bulldogs still have tough games remaining against Columbia, Arabia Mountain and Miller Grove.
Lithonia’s defense will be hard-pressed to slow Southwest’s Kadarius “KD” Johnson, who leads DeKalb County in scoring (24.6), assists (5.5) and steals (4.9).
Other top games on Tuesday night:
Boys: Griffin will challenge new No. 1 Fayette County in a Region 4 game. The Bears will try avenge an earlier 51-43 loss from Nov. 30. … No. 6 Woodland has a rematch with Dutchtown, three days after their first meeting – a 30-point Woodland victory.
Girls: No. 2-ranked Villa Rica (17-0) seeks to continue its unbeaten season on track with a home game against Region 7 foe East Paulding. … Cass (16-2) may be the best team in the state outside the rankings. The Colonels bring a nine-game winning streak into Tuesday's Region 7 game with Rome. … Veterans, which jumped to No. 3 in the rankings this week, goes for its sixth straight win on Tuesday against Houston County. The Warhawks won the first game 57-34 on Dec. 4 and have lost only to Class AAAA No. 1 Morgan County since.
