Brunswick boys basketball head coach Chris Turner reached the 300-victory milestone in his 15th season at the school when the Pirates defeated Evans 63-51 Saturday night in a Region 2-6A game.
It was the 11th victory in 12 games for Brunswick, which moved into the Class 6A rankings this week at No. 10. Brunswick is 17-3 overall and 9-1 in the region, sitting just behind defending state champion Grovetown (11-8, 7-0), which handed the Pirates their only region loss, an 80-59 game played Jan. 14 at Grovetown. The rematch will be Feb. 3 at Brunswick in a game that could decide the No. 1 seed for the upcoming Region 2 tournament.
Turner’s teams have won at least one playoff game in 10 of his 15 seasons, winning a state championship in 2015 and finishing as state runner-up in 2017. His record at the school is 301-123 after an 80-55 victory over South Effingham on Tuesday.
“It means a lot to me because we’ve got hometown kids, and we have pretty much always played a pretty difficult schedule, so we’ve had to earn a lot of them,” Turner told Derrick Davis of the Brunswick News. “I’m real thankful for my staff, for all my players and former players who have helped us. It’s definitely not just me. It’s a collective effort of a lot of different folks, all the people who support us. It’s something you can’t do by yourself. You have to have a good team around you, and we do. So I’m thankful for that.”
Brunswick plays a non-region game Saturday against 1-7A co-leader Camden County before returning to region play Tuesday night against Effingham County.
Here’s a look at some of the other top games involving Class 6A teams this weekend:
Boys
*Blessed Trinity at Alpharetta (Friday): Blessed Trinity (17-5, 9-0) fell out of the top 10 after a non-region loss to Marist last week, but the Titans remain undefeated and in first place in Region 7. Blessed Trinity returns to region play Friday night against third-place Alpharetta (12-9, 6-2), which has won five consecutive region games and lost to the Titans by one point, 63-62, in the first meeting.
*Marist at South Cobb (Friday): Second-ranked Marist (15-5, 7-0) is on top of the Region 4 standings and facing a battle with No. 3 St. Pius (15-5, 6-1) next weekend that could settle the No. 1 seed for the region tournament. Third-place South Cobb (11-9, 5-3) is trying to keep pace in the hopes of gaining at least the No. 2 seed. Marist won the first meeting 64-55 at home on Dec. 16.
Girls
*Habersham Central at Gainesville (Friday): Gainesville (17-1, 5-1) is just a half-game behind North Forsyth (14-6, 6-1) in Region 8 and faces the Raiders on Tuesday in a game that could decide first place in the region. However, the Red Elephants can’t afford to overlook Habersham Central (13-6, 5-2), the third-place team. Gainesville won at Habersham 48-42 in the teams’ region opener.
*Pope at Lassiter (Friday): Neither team is in the top 10 of the AJC rankings despite a combined overall record of 35-7, but these are the top two teams in Region 7. Pope (18-4, 8-1) has a 1.5-game lead on the Trojans, primarily because of its 44-33 win in the teams’ first meeting at Pope on Dec. 9. Pope defeated Lassiter 43-26 in the region tournament last year to earn a spot in the state playoffs.
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