Class 3A basketball blog: Playoff road gets tougher in Round 2 with ranked vs. ranked matchups

A predictable first round of the high school basketball playoffs produced a second round full of quality matchups on the boys and girls side of Class 3A.

In the first round, one ranked boys team and one ranked girls team lost, but the rest of the top-10 teams advanced.

Here’s the bracket breakdown:

Biggest boys first-round upset: Unranked Hebron Christian, the No. 4 seed from Region 4, defeated No. 7 White County, the No. 1 seed from Region 7, 74-55.

Biggest girls first-round upset: Adairsville entered as the No. 4 seed from Region 8 and defeated Region 5′s champion, Sandy Creek, 41-35.

Best boys second-round matchups: There are three games between ranked teams: No. 5 Cedar Grove at No. 3 Monroe Area, No. 9 Wesleyan at No. 1 Sandy Creek and No. 7 Monroe Area at No. 4 Cross Creek.

Best girls second-round matchups: There are two games between ranked teams: No. 10 Monroe at No. 3 Cross Creek and No. 4 Lumpkin County at No. 5 Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe.

Top-10 boys first-round losses: No. 7 Beach lost on a buzzer-beating lay-up from Harlem junior point guard Lemon Edmond. Trailing 56-55, Harlem worked the ball to Edmond, who finished with a left-handed shot around two Beach defenders. Beach attempted an unsuccessful cross-court shot at the buzzer.

Top-10 girls first-round losses: No. 7 White County lost to top-ranked Hebron Christian 68-53.

Second-round pairings

(Games played Friday and Saturday)

Boys

R8 #4 Hebron Christian at R5 #3 Douglass

R4 #2 Harlem at R1 #1 No. 6 Dougherty

R5 #2 No. 5 Cedar Grove at R8 #1 No. 3 Monroe Area

R3 #2 Long County at R2 #1 No. 10 Upson-Lee

R1 #3 Crisp County at R3 #1 No. 2 Johnson-Savannah

R7 #3 No. 9 Wesleyan at R5 #1 No. 1 Sandy Creek

R1 #2 No. 7 Monroe at R4 #1 No. 4 Cross Creek

R8 #3 Hart County at R6 #1 Adairsville