The River Ridge girls team pulled off the biggest victory of the week and solidified its position as the No. 1-ranked team in Class 6A with a 53-51 win Saturday against Buford, which was undefeated and ranked No. 3 in Class 7A.
The Knights were playing without second-leading scorer Kayla Cleaveland (14.9 points per game) and leading rebounder Allie Sweet (11.6 per game) but got 15 points, five assists and four rebounds from Mataya Gayle. Freshman Makayla Roberson had 12 points and nine rebounds, sophomore Sophia Pearl scored 11 points, and sophomore Joy Tchamabe had 10 points and 13 rebounds.
It was the latest noteworthy win for River Ridge, which also has beaten Class 7A No. 1 Brookwood 70-59 and handed Class 7A No. 7 North Paulding its only loss of the season, 75-49.
The Knights are 14-5 overall and 6-0 in Region 6. All of their losses have come against out-of-state opponents, including Hoover and Hazel Green, the two highest-rated teams in Alabama. River Ridge is 13-0 against Georgia teams.
*Turning things around: Defending Class 6A boys champion Grovetown, which opened the season 4-8 against the most difficult schedule in the classification (according to MaxPreps), improved to 8-8 and extended its winning streak to four games with victories over Evans, Effingham County and Brunswick last week. The Warriors’ 80-59 win against Brunswick on Saturday was the Pirates’ first loss in Region 2 play, leaving Grovetown (4-0 in the region) in first place heading into Tuesday’s game against Lakeside-Evans.
*Unbeaten no more: The are no more undefeated teams in Class 6A, boys or girls, after the Gainesville girls were defeated by North Forsyth 79-59 in a Region 8 game Friday. Gainesville had won its first 13 games of the season. The Red Elephants are unranked by the AJC but are No. 9 in the MaxPreps rankings. North Forsyth turned around the next night and lost at Habersham Central 55-45, leaving the three teams with one loss each in region play.
*Nominated: River Ridge’s Gayle is one of three 6A players that were among the 12 girls from Georgia on the list of nominees for the McDonald’s All-American Games, which was released last week. Also nominated from 6A were Sequoyah’s Elle Blatchford and Lovejoy’s La’Nya Foster. Gayle was a first-team all-state selection last season, and Blatchford was second-team. No 6A boys were among the 10 Georgia nominees. The rosters will be announced on Jan. 24, and the games will be played on March 28 in Houston.
*Tuesday’s top games: Jonesboro’s boys took sole possession of first place in Region 3 with a 72-62 victory over Woodward Academy last week, but the War Eagles can pull back even with a victory in the rematch at Jonesboro. … The top-ranked Alexander boys took sole possession of first place in Region 5 with a 64-48 victory against No. 9 Hughes last week and will try to maintain that lead when they host No. 6 South Paulding. … The No. 2 Forest Park girls opened up a two-and-a-half-game lead over three top-five teams in Region 3 with a 54-50 victory over No. 5 Rockdale County last week, but Rockdale County gets a chance to avenge the loss when the teams meet in Conyers. … No. 8 New Manchester’s girls team will try to avenge a December loss to No. 9 Hughes and move into a tie for first place with the Panthers when they meet in the rematch in Douglasville.
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