The final four has been decided, and both the top-ranked boys and girls teams made have it past the quarterfinals.
On the boys’ side, the No. 1 Greenforest Christian Eagles (26-4) will play the unranked Heritage-Newnan Hawks (23-7) 4 p.m. Friday, and the No. 3 King’s Ridge Tigers (27-4) take on the No. 10 First Presbyterian Day Vikings (23-3) 4 p.m. Saturday.
All 1A Private semifinal games will be held at Buford City Arena.
No. 2 Galloway was the closest any playoff team has come to challenging the Eagles but they still lost 61-43 in Wednesday’s quarterfinal matchup. The Eagles were led by senior Jalen Forrest’s 21 points, which came on 5-for-10 shooting from the field, and from going 11-for-13 from the free throw line. The Eagles beat Brookstone 87-34 in the first round and Tallulah Falls 80-34 in the second.
The last team standing in the Eagles’ way to a fifth state championship appearance since 2013 are the Hawks, champions of Region 4. Not only are the Hawks the lone remaining unranked team, their program has no history to speak of since joining the GHSA in 2018, aside from an appearance in last year’s state tournament.
Beating No. 5 North Cobb Christian 52-51 on Wednesday is the latest win in the Hawks’ improbable run, which also saw them down Southwest Atlanta Christian 60-46 and George Walton Academy 42-36.
The Tigers won their quarterfinal matchup 62-47 over Calvary Day and have been fortunate enough to avoid playing a ranked team in the playoffs, disposing of Athens Christian (69-57) and St. Anne-Pacelli (70-61) in the first two rounds. They’re in the semis for the first time in a program that dates to 2001.
The Vikings beat St. Francis 64-53 in their quarterfinal matchup after topping No. 9 Mount Vernon (68-58) and Savannah Christian (59-51). They’re in the semis for the first time in a program that made its GHSA debut in 2010.
In the girls tournament, the No. 1 Holy Innocents’ Bears (27-2) play the No. 2 Mount Paran Christian Eagles (23-4) 4 p.m. Friday, and the No. 4 Hebron Christian Lions (25-5) play the No. 5 Galloway Scots (18-9) 2 p.m. Saturday.
The Bears have been a juggernaut all season and are the only team in the field that has put up more than 90 points in a game, beating Walker 94-14 in Round 1. From there, they beat Calvary Day 74-38 and Landmark Christian 66-39. A win against the Eagles would put the Bears in the state championship for an eighth year in a row — they’re 3-4 in title games during that run.
Getting to the title game won’t be easy for Holy Innocents’. They’ll be going up against the Eagles, who have one of the country’s top recruits in Georgia Tech signee Kara Dunn, a 5-foot-11 senior rated as the No. 17 guard in the country by ESPN. The Eagles beat No. 6 Wesleyan (66-37), No. 8 Deerfield-Windsor (66-30) and No. 7 Trinity Christian (48-21). They’re the only remaining team to have played ranked opponents all through the playoffs, and now they play the toughest of them all in the Bears. Their first trip to the semifinals in a program that dates to 1976 was well-earned, to say the least.
Hebron Christian defeated No. 3 St. Francis 53-51 on the road Wednesday, putting the defending champions that much closer to a repeat. They also beat No. 10 Darlington (69-34) and No. 9 Savannah Country Day (59-41). The Lions are in the semifinals for the third year in a row under coach Jan Azar, who took over in 2019 after winning 13 state titles at Wesleyan.
The Scots, a No. 3 seed from Region 5, beat Tallulah Falls 55-43 to reach the semis for the first time in program history. They also beat North Cobb Christian 63-42 in Round 1 and Stratford Academy 48-35 in the second. Since 2004, they’ve reached the playoffs five times but never made it past the second round until this year.
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