Greater Atlanta Christian’s boys, the two-time defending Class AA champions, nearly had their season ended this week when they needed overtime to beat Wesleyan in the Region 6-AA quarterfinals.
On Thursday, with a state-playoff berth assured, the seventh-ranked Spartans upset third-ranked Holy Innocents’ 73-68 in the semifinals of the Region 6-AA tournament.
Cam Boyd scored 20 points and GAC made eight 3-pointers and 11 of 12 free throws in the final two minutes, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.
GAC will play No. 1-ranked Pace Academy (24-2) for the title on Friday night. Holy Innocents’ (22-5) will play the third-place game against Lovett.
Thursday was a lighter schedule for region tournaments around the state. All will be in action Friday night with semifinals or finals.
-Two Class AAAAAA regions will play championship games Friday night while the other six regions play their semifinals. In Region 1, third-ranked Pebblebrook plays ninth-ranked Douglas County for the boys title and seventh-ranked Westlake plays Hughes in the girls game. In Region 1 at Colquitt County, the boys final pits second-ranked Tift County against Lowndes, and the girls final has Valdosta against Tift County.
-In Region 1-AAAA, eighth-ranked Albany plays seventh-ranked Americus-Sumter in the boys final. Americus-Sumter beat Westover 60-58 on Thursday with a tip-in in the final seconds.
-The Region 6-AAAA championship games on Friday will pair ranked teams. It will be No. 3 Lithonia vs. No. 4 St. Pius for the boys title and No. 3 St. Pius vs. No. 7 Marist for the girls title.
-LaGrange’s girls team pulled the biggest upset in Class AAAAA on Thursday when they toppled Region 1’s No. 1 seed, Columbus (19-6), in the semifinals on Columbus’ home floor. Both teams are headed to the state playoffs, but Columbus was 12-0 in region play during the region schedule and beat LaGrange 75-34 and 52-39. LaGrange (11-13) will play No. 2 seed Northside-Columbus on Saturday for the title.
-The Region 6-A final on Saturday should be a good one as No. 1-ranked St. Francis plays No. 5 Whitefield Academy at Whitfield. Both advanced on Thursday. Whitefield was the designated visiting team at its own gym but defeated 10th-ranked North Cobb Christian 57-43.
-For the first time in Our Lady of Mercy school history, the boys (16-11) and girls (17-9) teams have advanced to the semifinals in the same season. The girls team was expected to make it to Friday's semifinals, after claiming the No. 4 seed in the tournament. But the boys squad, which had a combined record of 11-42 the past two seasons, needed to upset No. 4 seed Paideia to advance, which the Bobcats did in Thursday's quarterfinal round, 81-71.
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