The Class AAAAAA boys and girls high school basketball tournaments begin Thursday when Bradwell Institute travels to Greenbrier for a 6:30 p.m. game.
The other 30 boys teams and 32 girls teams will play Friday or Saturday on the road to Macon, where the championship games will be held on March 9.
Here are some of the stories to watch as the tournament unfolds over the next three weeks:
The favorites
*Boys – Tri-Cities is the top-ranked team after winning the regular-season and tournament championships in Region 5, the toughest in the classification. The Bulldogs are 21-6 but have won 11 of 13 games since the start of January. They beat No. 9 Hughes and No. 2 Alexander in the region tournament. Evans, Lakeside-Evans and Coffee also have held the top ranking but slid after late-season losses.
*Girls – Defending state champion Lovejoy (25-3) is ranked No. 1 and has won 41 consecutive games against Georgia opponents, a streak that dates to a 56-53 loss to Stephenson on Dec. 16, 2017. Genesis Bryant (the Class AAAAAA player of the year in 2018) and Anaya Boyd (the Region 4 player of the year this season) form what is likely the state’s best backcourt. Both are juniors.
Top challengers
*Boys – Second-ranked Alexander (20-8) was the No. 3 seed in the Region 5 tournament but beat New Manchester and Douglas County to reach the final, which it lost to Tri-Cities 57-56. No. 3 South Cobb, No. 6 Tucker and No. 7 Cambridge come into the tournament hot after winning region championships. Two-time defending state champion Hughes is playing its best ball of the season.
*Girls – Second-ranked Forest Park and No. 3 Northview appear to have separated themselves from the pack that’s chasing Lovejoy. Forest Park (24-4) suffered three of its four losses against the Wildcats, all of which were settled by five points or less. Northview (23-4), which lost to Lovejoy in the semifinals last season, has won 10 consecutive games since a loss on Jan. 12 against Hoover, Ala.
Best regions
*Boys – Region 5 has been considered by many as the toughest in the classification all season, and that idea is reflected by this week’s rankings, which has Tri-Cities at No. 1, Alexander at No. 2, Hughes at No. 9 and Douglas County at No. 10. The only other regions with more than one ranked team are regions 6 (No. 3 South Cobb, No. 4 Sprayberry) and 7 (No. 7 Cambridge, No. 8 Chattahoochee).
*Girls – Region 4 has three ranked teams – No. 1 Lovejoy, No. 2 Forest Park and No. 9 Stephenson. Lovejoy and Forest Park are the tournament favorites, and Stephenson suffered five of its 11 losses against those two teams. The only other region with more than one ranked team in Region 6, which has No. 8 Creekview and No. 10 Harrison. Sequoyah has spent most of the season in the top 10, too.
Best first-round games
*Boys – The only matchup between ranked teams occurs in the most difficult portion of the bracket, where No. 8 Chattahoochee travels to No. 4 Sprayberry. The winner will take on either top-ranked Tri-Cities or Lanier in the second round. Lanier was the No. 1 seed in Region 8 in the regular season but slipped to a No. 4 for state after being upset twice in the region tournament.
*Girls – Two teams that have been under the radar are New Manchester and Winder-Barrow, who will meet Friday in Winder. New Manchester is 24-4, with the losses coming against No. 7 Douglas County (twice), AAAAA No. 2 Villa Rica and Hughes. Winder-Barrow (18-9) senior Chellia Watson was the Region 8 player of the year and scored 42 against Dacula in the region tournament.
Worth noting
*Boys – Apalachee was the surprise of region tournament week, beating higher-seeded teams Winder-Barrow, Lanier and Gainesville on consecutive nights to win the Region 8 championship, the first region title in school history. Apalachee was 9-16 in the regular season, including a 2-8 mark in region play. The Wildcats will face 10th-ranked Douglas County at home in the first round.
*Girls – Hughes, which finished five games behind No. 7 Douglas County in the Region 5 standings, upset the Tigers 48-47 to win the region championship. Hughes will be at home Friday against Gainesville. That’s the same matchup that will take place in the boys’ bracket, where Hughes and Gainesville will meet in a rematch of last year’s state final. This game will be Saturday at Gainesville.
First-round schedule
*Boys
(R4 #3) Morrow at (R1 #2) Coffee, 7 p.m. Saturday
(R3 #4) Lakeside-Evans at (R2 #1) Brunswick, 7 p.m. Friday
(R6 #3) Sequoyah at (R7 #2) North Atlanta, 7 p.m. Friday
(R5 #4) Douglas County at (R8 #1) Apalachee, 6 p.m. Saturday
(R1 #3) Lee County at (R4 #2) Mundy’s Mill, 7:30 p.m. Saturday
(R2 #4) Bradwell Institute at (R3 #1) Greenbrier, 6:30 p.m. Thursday
(R7 #3) Chattahoochee at (R6 #2) Sprayberry, 7 p.m. Friday
(R8 #4) Lanier at (R5 #1) Tri-Cities, 7:30 p.m. Friday
(R2 #3) Glynn Academy at (R3 #2) Evans, 6:30 p.m. Friday
(R1 #4) Valdosta at (R4 #1) Tucker, 4 p.m. Saturday
(R5 #3) Hughes at (R8 #2) Gainesville, 6 p.m. Saturday
(R6 #4) Creekview at (R7 #1) Cambridge, 7 p.m. Saturday
(R3 #3) Heritage-Conyers at (R2 #2) Richmond Hill, 6 p.m. Saturday
(R4 #4) Mt. Zion-Jonesboro at (R1 #1) Houston County, 5 p.m. Saturday
(R8 #3) Dacula at (R5 #2) Alexander, 7 p.m. Saturday
(R7 #4) Pope at (R6 #1) South Cobb, 7 p.m. Friday
*Girls
(R4 #3) Stephenson at (R1 #2) Northside-Warner Robins, 6 p.m. Friday
(R3 #4) Evans at (R2 #1) Glynn Academy, 6 p.m. Friday
(R6 #3) Sequoyah at (R7 #2) Alpharetta, 7 p.m. Friday
(R5 #4) Alexander at (R8 #1) Lanier, 6 p.m. Friday
(R1 #3) Lee County vs. (R4 #2) Forest Park, 6 p.m. Saturday at Mundy’s Mill
(R2 #4) Richmond Hill at (R3 #1) Heritage-Conyers, 6 p.m. Friday
(R7 #3) Pope at (R6 #2) Creekview, 6 p.m. Friday
(R8 #4) Gainesville at (R5 #1) Hughes, 7 p.m. Friday
(R2 #3) Brunswick at (R3 #2) Grovetown, 6 p.m. Friday
(R1 #4) Houston County at (R4 #1) Lovejoy, 6 p.m. Friday
(R5 #3) New Manchester at (R8 #2) Winder-Barrow, 6 p.m. Friday
(R6 #4) Dalton at (R7 #1) Northview, 6:30 p.m. Friday
(R3 #3) Lakeside-Evans at (R2 #2) Bradwell Institute, 6:30 p.m. Friday at Liberty County
(R4 #4) M.L. King at (R1 #1) Valdosta, 7 p.m. Friday
(R8 #3) Dacula at (R5 #2) Douglas County, 6 p.m. Friday
(R7 #4) Johns Creek at (R6 #1) Harrison, 6 p.m. Friday
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