Class 4A Blog: Updated Region Standings and trends

With less than a month left of the regular season, Class 4A’s top 10 programs are squaring off and showcasing which teams are peaking at the right time. Below, you can find the latest updated region standings. On the girls side, Cedar Shoals fell 39-34 in battle with Region 8 foe Flowery Branch, but the Jaguars followed it up with a big 65-53 win over Chestatee in a top 10 showdown. Cedar Shoals was able to shake off that defeat in part to a 23-point, eight rebound effort by junior Ashley Lester and senior teammate Deshauna Foote’s 20 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. Over in Region 6, Marist held off Arabia Mountain 42-36 last Tuesday and improved to 4-0 in region play in the process. The War Eagles fell to Galloway on Friday and their record dropped to 12-3, however, all three losses came outside of the classification. The biggest winner in Class 4A this weekend was arguably Luella, who defeated Class 6A powerhouse Carrollton 49-44 in the J4 Sports MLK Holiday Invitational on Tuesday. Leading the way was Trinity Layton, who paced the Lions with 18 points and 10 rebounds.

On the boys side, No. 1 ranked McDonough took out Fayette County for the second time this season with a 73-65 victory last Tuesday. The Warhawks followed that victory with an 87-35 win over North Clayton on Friday and a massive 74-70 win over Class 5A powerhouse Tri-Cities on Monday. As a result, McDonough has won 12-straight and at 17-1 its lone loss came to Class 5A No. 1 ranked Eagle’s Landing (60-54) on Dec. 4. McDonough, which was formerly Henry County has never won a boys basketball state title and its last girls state title came in 1960. Leading this year’s McDonough team has been a deep cast of contributors, but juniors Daavion Thomas (16.8 ppg) and Amon McDowell (15.4) have been the biggest difference makers along with sophomore Keenan Gray (9.8). In the Tri-Cities win, which was arguably the biggest statement victory on McDonough’s resume this season, there were four different players that notched double-figure scoring. Thomas finished with a game-high 26 points—including 14-of-15 shooting at the foul line, McDowell scored 21, Gray finished with 10 points and senior Howard Fagan also scored 10 to go with his team-high 10 rebounds.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Westover is looking to bounce back from tough losses to Bainbridge (64-51) and Monroe (61-49). Monroe is 14-2 after the victory and has won nine-straight. The Golden Tornadoes are also perfect on the season within the classification and will host Westover on Feb. 1 in an anticipated rematch of their latest victory. Similar to McDonough, Monroe’s latest victory included four different players that notched double-figures and even more impressive is the team’s 78 percent shooting from the field (25-32). In fact, Cedric Johnson (13 points), Domonic Henderson (16), Boss Diallo (15) and Andrico Jackson (11) combined for 22-of-26 shooting from the field.