Class 6A blog: A look at the girls basketball region races

First place is still up for grabs in seven of the eight Class 6A girls basketball regions heading into the final two weeks of the regular season.

Only Brunswick of Region 2 has clinched a No 1 seed for the upcoming region tournaments. Those tournaments determine the four teams from each region that will advance to the state playoffs, which begin Feb. 21.

These are the complete girls standings going into this week’s games. Note that the records are taken from MaxPreps, the official record-keeper for the Georgia High School Association, and that some of those records may not have been fully updated.

Region 1: Veterans can clinch first place with a victory Tuesday against Tift County, but a win by Tift would leave the teams with one loss each in the region. Veterans won the first meeting 74-54 at home on Jan. 6. Veterans also has an advantage in that it will have just two region games remaining after Tuesday while Tift County has four.

Team	Region W	Region L	Overall W	Overall L
#8 Veterans	7	0	19	3
#9 Tift County	5	1	15	4
Lee County	4	4	12	11
Thomas County Central	3	4	12	5
Houston County	2	5	9	11
Northside-Warner Robins	0	7	2	17

Region 2: Brunswick clinched first place with a 51-43 victory over South Effingham last week. That’s the only region game this season for Brunswick that was decided by fewer than 22 points. South Effingham now has to hold off Grovetown and Lakeside-Evans for second place.

Region 3: Lovejoy, Woodward Academy and Forest Park enter the home stretch with two losses each in region play. Forest Park has the least difficult remaining schedule of the three, so the Panthers are likely to finish in a tie for first place with the winner of Friday’s Lovejoy-Woodward game. Forest Park went 1-1 against both teams. Lovejoy steps out of region play Tuesday night to face Class A Division I No. 1 St. Francis.

Team	Region W	Region L	Overall W	Overall L
#5 Brunswick	10	0	18	3
South Effingham	7	2	16	6
Grovetown	6	3	11	10
Lakeside-Evans	6	4	14	8
Glynn Academy	3	6	5	15
Effingham County	1	8	3	18
Evans	0	10	2	21

Region 4: This race is far from settled. Marist holds a half-game lead over Riverwood but has four region games remaining, including a showdown at home against Riverwood. The War Eagles also play at third-place St. Pius on Friday. However, Marist defeated both teams handily (Riverwood 59-25 and St. Pius 59-23) in the first meetings.

Team	Region W	Region L	Overall W	Overall L
#2 Lovejoy	11	2	19	4
#3 Woodward Academy	10	2	18	5
#4 Forest Park	10	2	16	5
#7 Rockdale County	6	5	15	7
Alcovy	5	7	13	9
Jonesboro	3	8	6	14
Mundy's Mill	3	10	11	12
Morrow	0	12	7	17

Region 5: Hughes can clinch first place with a victory Friday against second-place Douglas County. If Douglas County pulls off the upset (Hughes won the first meeting 61-46), Hughes can still clinch the No. 1 seed with victories in its other two remaining games, against East Paulding on Tuesday and Alexander on Feb. 7.

Team	Region W	Region L	Overall W	Overall L
Marist	8	0	18	2
Riverwood	8	1	13	9
St. Pius	5	3	9	10
Lakeside-DeKalb	5	4	11	7
North Atlanta	3	5	5	12
Dunwoody	1	8	4	16
South Cobb	0	9	1	16

Region 6: River Ridge would need to lose at least two of its final three games to lose its grip on first place. And even though two of those games are against the Knights’ closest competitors – Woodstock (Friday) and Rome (Feb. 7), both on the road – that’s unlikely considering River Ridge is undefeated against Georgia teams this season.

Team	Region W	Region L	Overall W	Overall L
#6 Hughes	11	0	17	4
Douglas County	8	2	16	5
New Manchester	7	3	15	5
Paulding County	6	4	11	8
Alexander	4	6	11	10
South Paulding	4	7	8	14
East Paulding	2	9	6	16
Newnan	0	11	0	19

Region 7: Pope had a chance to slam the door on the rest of the pack, but the Greyhounds lost to Lassiter 55-50 on Friday, leaving each with two region losses. Third-place Blessed Trinity could play the role of spoiler when it travels to Pope on Feb. 7, although Pope won the first meeting 80-54. Lassiter still has to deal with fourth-place Sprayberry, which lost to the Trojans 50-49 on Jan. 10.

Team	Region W	Region L	Overall W	Overall L
#1 River Ridge	9	0	17	5
Rome	7	2	14	7
Woodstock	7	3	11	12
Sequoyah	5	4	13	9
Creekview	4	6	14	9
Etowah	1	8	7	14
Allatoona	0	10	3	13

Region 8: North Forsyth can lock down the No. 1 seed this week, but the Raiders have some work to do, facing the two teams tied for second place. North Forsyth will travel to Gainesville on Tuesday (North Forsyth won the first meeting 79-59) and host Habersham Central on Friday (Habersham handed North Forsyth its only region loss, 55-45 on Jan. 14). Lanier remains in the hunt for the No. 2 seed, with games against Gainesville and Habersham over the next week.

Team	Region W	Region L	Overall W	Overall L
Pope	8	2	18	5
Lassiter	7	2	18	3
Blessed Trinity	7	3	14	9
Sprayberry	5	4	12	9
Johns Creek	3	6	14	8
Roswell	3	7	9	13
Alpharetta	0	9	0	18

About the Author

Chip Saye

Chip Saye is a former writer and editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and remains a regular contributor to the AJC. In 2009 he helped start Georgia High School Football Daily. He previously worked for the Athens Banner-Herald, Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail and Gwinnett Daily News.

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