The defending Class 6A champion River Ridge girls basketball team picked up its third victory of the season against a top-five team from the highest classification when it took down Buford 74-67 on Saturday at Buford.
Freshman guard/forward Finley Parker led the top-ranked Knights (13-4) with a season-high 28 points and had three rebounds, three assists and three steals. Kayla Cleaveland (14 points, 11 rebounds) and Allie Sweet (12 points, 12 rebounds) had double-doubles, and Sophia Pearl and Makayla Roberson had 10 points each and 13 combined assists.
The loss was the second of the year for Buford, which fell one spot to No. 3 in this week’s Class 7A rankings. River Ridge previously defeated Class 7A No. 4 Norcross (51-43 on Dec. 15) and No. 5 North Paulding (63-42 on Nov. 21).
River Ridge’s Region 6-6A game against second-place Sequoyah that was scheduled for Tuesday night has been moved to next Monday because of school closings.
*Down to the wire: The Riverwood boys team (14-5, 5-1) moved into second place in Region 4 with a 64-60 victory over Marist on Friday and came close to another significant win Saturday before coming up short in a 71-70 loss to then-No. 1 Pace Academy of Class 4A. Senior guard Karris Bilal did all he could to keep the Raiders in the game. The Vanderbilt signee finished with 33 points and is averaging more than 25 per game for the season. Riverwood’s next game is Friday at Dunwoody.
*Moving up: The Lakeside-Evans girls team moved into the rankings at No. 10 after improving to 13-3 with a 59-29 victory over Evans in its only game last week. Lakeside, which finished 14-11 last season and failed to reach the state playoffs out of seven-team Region 2, is one of four teams at the top of the standings with one region loss, and the Panthers play two of the other three this week (Grovetown on Tuesday and Glynn Academy on Saturday). Glynn Academy handed Lakeside its only region loss, 44-42 on Jan. 6.
*First place at stake: The top two boys teams in Region 3, Jonesboro and Woodward Academy, will meet for the second time in nine days when they face off Wednesday night at Woodward. Jonesboro (10-8, 7-0) won the first round 67-60 on Jan. 9, and another victory would give the Cardinals a lead of at least two games over every other team in the eight-team region with six games remaining. A victory by ninth-ranked Woodward Academy (14-4, 6-1) would leave the teams in a tie for first place.
*Tuesday’s top games: The No. 2-ranked Lee County boys team will try to bounce back from a Monday loss to Class 7A Valdosta when it hosts Houston County. Lee County and Thomas County Central are unbeaten in region play, sitting just ahead of one-loss teams Houston County and Veterans. … The third-ranked Marist girls will aim to remain perfect in region play when they host upstart Lakeside-DeKalb in a Region 4 game. Lakeside, 11-4 this year after going 14-12 last season, is one of three one-loss teams in the region along with St. Pius and North Atlanta. … Note that all game schedules are subject to change due to weather-related school closings.
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