Class 4A Blog: Newcomers heighten classification’s championship pedigree

This season’s field is headlined by a bevy of aspiring champions and the first month and a half of the season has offered a preview of the battles to come. McDonough had a breakout 26-3 campaign in 2021 and fell 42-39 to Westover in the semifinals. This year, the Warhawks are off to a hot 6-0 star, that includes wins over Class 6A powerhouse Hughes 69-48, Class 3A Johnson-Savannah 63-61 and more recently Lovett (68-58), which is one of the Class 4A newcomers currently represented in the poll. McDonough is led by Avante Nichols (16 ppg), Amon Mcdowell (14.8) and junior Keenan Gray (11.2)—all of which were pivotal last year to fuel the program’s consecutive semifinal finish.

Perhaps the biggest challenger that is new to the Class 4A landscape will be Pace Academy—a program that has won four titles since 2016. The Knights are off to a 5-2 start with its two defeats coming to a California and New York school. Pace Academy’s recent victories include a massive 76-33 win over Hampton last Tuesday and a 79-46 win over Mt. Zion-Jonesboro last Friday. Pace Academy’s next matchup will be against Hughes and the Knights will visit McDonough in Region 5 play on Jan. 20.

On the girls side, The competition stiffened significantly with the latest reclassification and we’ve already seen that play out as Westminster toppled Holy Innocents’ 55-51 this week to shakeup the polls. Griffin, is currently at the top of the poll and is also new to the classification and Luella returns as a top contender after falling in last year’s state championship to Marist in an overtime heartbreaker. Marist has since moved up to Class 6A, but Stockbridge is another newcomer that will contend this season and the Tigers were topped 66-62 by Luella this week. Leading Luella to the win was Milani Smith—who finished with 18 points and eight rebounds.