Six girls region champions lost first-round games Friday, and the sting of upset was especially shocking at Westlake, the fifth-ranked team in Class AAAAAA. Westlake’s boys team, ranked No. 6, also lost Friday.
Pepperell's girls, ranked sixth in AA, were the only ranked No. 1 seed to lose.
Tift County beat Westlake's girls 59-58 on a last-second shot by Alexis Johnson, according to the Tifton Gazette. Tift County entered the game 12-16 and seeded fourth out of Region 1-AAAAAA. Westlake, the Region 3 champion, finished 22-5.
Westlake’s boys, ranked as high as No. 2 in AAAAAA, lost 78-67 in Brunswick. Westlake (25-4) had been upset by Newnan in its region tournament and was seeded only third. Brunswick is 22-6 with three of its losses to third-ranked Tift County.
Five other girls teams beat region champions. Upon closer inspection, many were not upsets, according to the Maxwell Ratings released before the tournament began.
*North Cobb of 4-AAAAAA beat Region 2 champ Newton 59-50. Chantel Strahorn made five 3-pointers for North Cobb, according to the Marietta Daily Journal.The Maxwell Ratings did not consider this an upset. North Cobb was ranked 13th, Newton 20th.
*Mountain View of 7-AAAAAA beat Region 5 champ Woodstock 46-43. Mountain View won its first-ever state playoff game. D'Andra had a double-double of 13 points, 10 rebounds, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post. Mountain View (21-7) had been ranked at one time this season but was upset twice in the region tournament while Woodstock had upset regular-season champion Roswell to win its region tournament. The Maxwell Ratings did not consider this an upset and had Mountain Creek ranked No. 6 in AAAAAA. Woodstock was No. 32.
*Grady of 6-AAAA beat Region 8 champ Chestatee 55-51. Jasmine Rich had 13 points, eight in the fourth quarter, and seven rebounds for Grady, according to the Gainesville Times. Chestatee (24-5) had just won its first-ever region tournament. But the Maxwell Ratings did not highly regard Region 6 and did not consider this an ujpset. Grady is 19-10.
*North Hall of 7-AAA beat Region 5 champ Sonoraville 62-53. Sydney Cleveland scored 17 points and had 11 rebounds for North Hall, according to the Gainesville Times. North Hall (19-10) had finished second in the regular season but wound up the fourth seed after being upset twice in the region tournament. The Maxwell Ratings did not consider this an upset. Sonoraville finished 21-7.
* Bowdon of Region 5-AA beat sixth-ranked Pepperell 52-48. The Maxwell ratings considered this a significant upset. Pepperell was ranked ninth, Bowdon 28 th . Bowdon got the lead-taking points on a 3-pointer from Natalie Brown with 32 seconds left, and Allie Phillips scored 18 points, according to the Times-Georgian of Carrollton. Bowdon is 19-10. Pepperell finished 21-4.
Three other ranked girls teams lost Friday, but each time as a lower-seeded team on an opponent's home floor. They were No. 10 Hiram in AAAAA (to Sequoyah), No. 7 Tattnall County in AAA (to No. 8 Dodge County) and No. 9 Armuchee in AA (to Manchester).
