Friday wrap: Douglas County, Westlake take Gwinnett to task

Douglas County and Westlake didn’t study their history lessons Friday, or perhaps just ignored them.

There hasn’t been a girls basketball champion in the highest classification that wasn’t from DeKalb, Cobb or Gwinnett counties since 2000.

The outsiders looked pretty good on Friday night as Douglas County beat No. 6 Collins Hill 53-48 while unranked Westlake defeated No. 2 Norcross 39-37. Norcross and Collins Hill are two of Gwinnett County’s finest this season from Region 7-AAAAAA.

Perhaps Douglas County, a program that hasn’t gotten past the semifinals in girls basketball in more than 60 years of trying, should be taken more seriously as a state-title contender. The team (27-1) has lost only to No. 1-ranked Tucker on Dec. 19.

Westlake wasn’t even ranked despite a 25-5 record. Westlake’s five losses are to Douglas County (three times), Tucker and out-of-state Brewbaker Tech.

The rest of AAAAAA went as expected on Friday. No. 5 Archer plays at No. 3 McEachern on Saturday.

These are the quarterfinal pairings for next week at West Georgia.

R5 #1 Woodstock vs. R2 #1 Tucker

R8 #1 Parkview vs. R3 #1 Douglas County

R5 #2 Cherokee vs. R6 #1 West Forsyth

R3 #2 Westlake vs. Winner (R8 #2 Archer at R4 #1 McEachern)

Here are more observations from Friday night's second round in the girls state tournament:

AAAAA

-Rough night for Region 2. Fourth-ranked Grovetown (28-2) and fifth-ranked Warner Robins (22-3) were put out. Grovetown lost to sixth-ranked Mays 84-72, while Warner Robins went down to 10th-ranked Sequoyah 47-40.

-Winder-Barrow continued its run as a No. 4 seed. The Bulldoggs defeated eighth-ranked Carver-Columbus 49-43. They are making their first state-playoff appearance since 1994 and have advanced for the first time since their 1993 run to the Class AAA semifinals. Winder-Barrow (24-6) defeated region champion Villa Rica in the first round.

-Another Region 8 team, Loganville, beat Region 4 champ Dutchtown 42-40. A third Region 8 team, second-ranked Flowery Branch, gives the region the most teams in the quarters (three).

At Columbus State

R8 #4 Winder-Barrow vs. R6 #2 Mays

R8 #1 Flowery Branch vs. R3 #1 Brunswick

R1 #1 Columbus vs. R6 #1 Southwest DeKalb

R8 #2 Loganville vs. R7 #1 Sequoyah

AAAA

-No. 1 Americus-Sumter and No. 2 Marist advanced to set up their too-early quarterfinal match next week at Fort Valley. This is one of three such No. 1 vs. No. 2 games in the girls quarterfinals statewide.

-Arabia Mountain, the fourth-place finisher in Region 6, knocked out Burke County 58-36. Arabia Mountain (20-10) had not won a state-playoff basketball game, boys or girls, until this season.

-Two region champions departed Friday night. Fourth-ranked Buford beat sixth-ranked Mount Zion-Jonesboro, the Region 4 champion. Bainbridge, the No. 3 seed from Region 1, beat Region 8 champ North Oconee. Both were unranked.

At Fort Valley State

R5 #1 Carrollton vs. R2 #1 Veterans

R1 #3 Bainbridge vs. R3 #1 Wayne County

R1 #1 Americus-Sumter vs. R6 #1 Marist

R6 #4 Arabia Mountain vs. R8 #2 Buford

AAA

-Eight of the top-nine ranked teams made the quarterfinals. The only one that didn’t – No. 7 Hart County – lost to No. 3 Jackson-Atlanta. So it could be said that the eight that were projected to be here arrived safely.

-No. 1 Morgan County plays No. 2 Laney next week in Augusta.

At Augusta University

R1 #2 Johnson-Savannah vs. R2 #1 Peach County

R8 #1 Morgan County vs. R3 #1 Laney

R1 #1 Beach vs. R2 #2 Kendrick

R4 #1 Jackson-Atlanta vs. R7 #1 West Hall

AA

-No. 1 Holy Innocents’ and No. 2 Pelham advanced to set up their too-early quarterfinal matchup in Milledgeville next week.

-Wesleyan, ranked No. 3, beat Region 2 champion and eighth-ranked Vidalia by 37 points – 77-40.

-Greater Atlanta Christian, the third-place finisher behind Holy Innocents’ and Wesleyan, beat Region 3 champion Swainsboro, giving Region 6 three teams in the quarterfinals.

-If No. 5 Rabun County wins today (Saturday) against Monticello, the quarterfinal teams comprise the top seven in the rankings, plus unranked Heard County, the Region 5 champion.

At Georgia College and State University

R6 #2 Wesleyan vs. R5 #1 Heard County

R6 #3 Greater Atlanta Christian vs. Winner (R4 #2 Monticello/R8 #1 Rabun County)

R1 #1 Pelham vs. R6 #1 Holy Innocents’

R4 #1 Putnam County vs. R7 #1 Model

A

The Class A playoffs began Friday. The eight higher-seeded and home-standing public-school seeds advanced. The only upset in the private division was 10th-seeded ELCA over seventh-seeded Our Lady of Mercy.

At Valdosta State

#1 Turner County vs. #8 Telfair County

#5 Treutlen
 vs. #4 Wheeler County

#3 Taylor County vs. #6 Greenville

#7 Calhoun County
 vs. #2 Terrell County

At Kennesaw State

#8 Mt. Paran vs. Winner (#16 First Presbyterian/#1 St. Francis)