Final boys basketball rankings: 3 first-time champions finish No. 1

Fresh off their first state championships, St. Pius, Rabun County and Darlington are No. 1 in the final Atlanta Journal-Constitution boys basketball rankings.

Wheeler, Alexander, Cross Creek, Morgan County and Clinch County also are No. 1 after championship victories last week in Macon.

St. Pius, a DeKalb County private school that opened in 1958, had been runner-up in 1992, 2017 and 2018 but never a champion until the current squad went 33-0. St. Pius is the first unbeaten GHSA boys team since McEachern and Calhoun County in 2019.

St. Pius beat Pace Academy 54-51 in the Class 4A final after Westin Keppen broke a 49-49 tie with a 3-point shot with 38 seconds left. Harris Reynolds, a Clemson signee, finished with 23 points and nine rebounds.

Rabun County, the Class A Division I champion, beat Southwest of Macon 52-43 for its title. Huey Blalock, a Navy basketball commit, scored 29 points, as he did in the semifinals.

Rabun County is a northwest Georgia mountain school that dates to the 1920s. It had won only one state title in any sport — boys golf in 1991. The boys basketball team’s best previous finishes were quarterfinals in 2021 and 1951.

Darlington, a Rome school founded in 1905, won the Private championship with a 53-50 victory over defending champion Holy Innocents’. Darlington’s boys basketball previously had advanced no further than the semifinals in 1994.

DJ Hall, a junior point guard averaging just 9 points per game, scored 30 in the final while making five 3-pointers and seven assists.

Darlington became the first boys or girls basketball team outside metro Atlanta to win a Private championship since Aquinas’ boys in 2018 and the second overall since smaller private schools began having their own championships in 2013.

The only boys team to repeat as champion was Wheeler, which defeated Pebblebrook 62-52 in the all-Cobb County Class 6A final. Colben Landrew, a UConn signee and the GHSA’s top-rated senior prospect, scored 29 points and had 12 rebounds.

With 11 state titles, all since 1994, Wheeler is tied with Wilkinson County with the most boys championships since World War II. Ranked No. 11 by MaxPreps, Wheeler will play in the eight-team Throne National Championship next month in New Jersey.

In Class 5A, Alexander beat Woodward Academy 81-67, blowing open a close game with a 25-12 fourth quarter.

Gregory “Pops” Dunson, a Colorado State signee, scored 25 points and had six assists, and Jayden Crawford had 18 points and nine rebounds. The title was Alexander’s second in four seasons. Alexander is a Douglas County school.

Cross Creek of Augusta won its third title in six seasons with a 56-51 victory over region rival Harlem in Class 3A.

Cross Creek trailed by six points entering the fourth quarter but rallied to beat Harlem for the fourth time this season. Dontrell Jackson scored 25 points, and Frashad Tisby had 16 points, seven rebounds and five blocked shots.

Cross Creek’s title was the seventh for Augusta boys teams in the past six seasons. Westside has won three and Butler one.

Morgan County won its first state title since 2018 with a 53-52 overtime victory over Butler, the defending Class 2A champion.

Zeki Lucas had 20 points and 13 rebounds and made two free throws with 6.3 seconds left in the extra period for the winning margin. Butler’s last-second shot rimmed out.

Clinch County claimed its first state title since 1989 with a 63-43 victory over Portal in Class A Division II. Traviian Miller, also the quarterback on Clinch County’s semifinal-finishing football team, scored 25 points and had 12 rebounds.

Class 6A

1. Wheeler (27-6)
2. McEachern (24-6)
3. Pebblebrook (23-9)
4. Hillgrove (24-7)
5. Grayson (26-3)
6. Meadowcreek (24-7)
7. Cherokee (19-9)
8. Westlake (20-8)
9. Walton (22-7)
10. Peachtree Ridge (18-12)

Class 5A

1. Alexander (30-2)
2. Woodward Academy (25-7)
3. Gainesville (30-1)
4. Decatur (25-6)
5. Dutchtown (24-7)
6. Tri-Cities (17-14)
7. Hughes (20-7)
8. Johns Creek (22-7)
9. Woodstock (25-4)
10. Milton (21-7)

Class 4A

1. St. Pius (33-0)
2. Pace Academy (24-8)
3. North Oconee (26-4)
4. Jonesboro (23-8)
5. Southwest DeKalb (24-7)
6. Cambridge (18-13)
7. Tucker (21-9)
8. Westminster (22-5)
9. Griffin (23-4)
10. Mays (21-9)