It’s the final weekend of the regular season. After that, records go out the window and every team will begin their journey toward the ultimate goal of a state championship. Region tournament games, which decide state tournament seeding, will tipoff on Monday.
Here’s a look at some of this weekend’s top games that will close out the regular season.
We’ll start on the boys side. What’s going on with the top-ranked Therrell Panthers? First they lost 55-52 to No. 4 Douglass on Jan. 24. Then on Tuesday, they lost 74-71 to unranked Hapeville Charter, which is 12-12 and 6-7 in 6-AA. The good news is the Panthers (17-7, 11-2) have already locked up the top seed for the 6-AA tournament, even if they lose again in their regular season finale to South Atlanta (13-8, 9-4) on Saturday. It is possible, however, that they’ve lost their No. 1 ranking even if they win.
The No. 9 Dublin Fighting Irish (20-2, 11-0) close their regular season with one heck of a challenge. On Friday, they play for first place in Region 3 at Washington County (15-6, 10-1), a team they barely beat, 46-44, on Jan. 7. In that game, Dublin’s Tae Bloodshaw led all scorers with 21 points, with teammate Jacques Evans pitching in 16 points and eight rebounds. The Golden Hawks got 19 points from Jaden Maze. On Saturday, the Fighting Irish will face A-Public’s No. 1 Treutlen (22-0) on the road with the hopes of sending them into the postseason with a blemish on their record. On Dec. 28, Treutlen beat them 50-42 in Dublin, with Qua King’s 16 points leading the way in a losing effort.
On the girls’ side, the No. 3 Rabun County Lady Wildcats (22-1, 12-1 in 8-AA) and No. 4 Putnam County Lady War Eagles (21-2, 12-1) will play for first place on Friday. The Lady War Eagles beat Rabun County 58-54 at home on Jan. 10, with Jashanti Simmons’ 22 points, four assists, two steals and a block leading the way.
Editor's note: There won't be a Class AA blog next week, as I will be focusing my resources on providing up-to-date scores from all the region tournaments in AA. The blog will resume the week of Feb. 10 with my annual, world-famous and critically-acclaimed state playoff predictions.
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