It was good night for a pair of boys teams from Jackson County at the Region 8-AAA tournament at Hart County.
East Jackson, coached by former Milton state-championship coach David Boyd, in his first season there, is in the state playoffs for the second time in its history, first since 2009, after a 63-42 victory over Oconee County. Drue Drennon, whom Boyd calls the best freshman in the state, scored 29 points and had 11 assists.
More surprising was Jefferson’s 63-51 victory over third-seeded Elbert County. Jefferson was a Class AAA quarterfinalist last season but finished this regular season 6-19, with two losses to Elbert County. Elbert finished 17-9.
The semifinals are Friday at Emmanuel College.
Most regions didn’t play Wednesday and will resume with semifinals Friday. Here are a few highlights and things to watch.
-In Class AAAAAA, the 32 boys and 32 girls state-playoff teams have been decided. All that is left is to seed them and decide region champions. Regions 1 and 3 will have their semifinals Thursday with finals on Friday. The other six regions will have Friday semifinals and Saturday finals.
-The Region 6-AA tournament at Holy Innocents’ resumes Thursday with semifinal games between state-ranked teams. Defending AA boys champion Greater Atlanta Christian, ranked No. 6, plays third-ranked Holy Innocents’. No 1-ranked Pace Academy plays Lovett. In the girls semifinals, No. 3 Wesleyan plays No. 7 Lovett. No. 1 Holy Innocents’ plays unranked Hapeville Charter.
-Though not unexpected, Jordan’s boys didn’t make the state playoffs out of Region 2-AAA. Jordan made the AA semifinals in 2012 and 2013 and won the AAA title in 2007. They missed in 2010. They lost to Peach County 73-56 and finished 9-16.
-We reported Wednesday that the East (Augusta) subregion girls swept the four spots in the Region 3-AAAAA semifinals. On the boys side, the opposite occurred. All four of the teams from the West (Macon area) subregion reached the boys semifinals:
#W4 Houston County 63, #E1 Grovetown 60
#W2 Northside-Warner Robins 58, #E3 Evans 44
#W3 Jones County 73, #E2 Cross Creek 64
#W1 Warner Robins 59, #E4 Lakeside-Evans 44
- Also, in 6-AAAAA, the DeKalb schools from subregion A dominated the Atlanta schools from subregion B, taking six of the eight semifinal spots. The only exception was Mays, which got its boys and No. 2-ranked girls teams in the semifinals.
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