High school basketball: Pace seeks to lock up Region 6-AA
The Pace Academy boys basketball team is ranked No. 1 in Class AA and the Knights can lock up first place in Region 6-AA in the regular season with a victory Tuesday at No. 3 Holy Innocents’.
Pace Academy is 18-2 overall and 10-0 in the region, two games ahead of Holy Innocents’ (18-3, 8-2) and three games ahead of sixth-ranked Greater Atlanta Christian (13-7, 7-3). A victory would give the Knights a three-game lead with three games remaining and season sweeps against both top contenders.
Pace’s Wendell Carter, a 6-foot-10 sophomore, had 24 points and 25 rebounds in the Knights’ 59-48 victory in the teams’ first meeting Jan. 6. Elijah Holifield and Waide Swain scored 12 points each. Since that loss, Holy Innocents’ has won six consecutive games, including an 82-78 victory against GAC last week.
Here are some of the other top games Tuesday in Georgia high school basketball:
- Decatur at Westminster (girls): Second-ranked South Atlanta has just about wrapped up the No. 1 seed in Division A of Region 4-AAA and the Division B winner is likely to be the winner of this game. No. 5 Decatur (19-2, 8-0) holds a slight lead over No. 9 Westminster (16-4, 6-1) in the subregion, thanks to a 55-45 victory in their first meeting at home Dec. 13.
- Douglas County at Hughes (boys and girls): The seventh-ranked Douglas County boys (16-4, 9-1) need a victory against third-place Hughes (15-5, 6-4) to keep pace with No. 4 Pebblebrook (16-5, 10-0) in the race for first place in 3-AAAAA. K'Ja Johnson, a Florida A&M signee, leads Douglas County with 12.7 points per game and had 23 points, three rebounds, four assists and three steals in a 60-58 victory against Hughes on Dec. 12. On the girls' side, Hughes and Douglas County are essentially tied with No. 4 Westlake for first place with one region loss each. The winner will have a chance to claim the regular-season title with a victory against Westlake in the final two weeks of the season.
- North Cobb at McEachern (girls): Osborne is closing in on the regular-season title in 4-AAAAAA after beating McEachern last week for the second time this season. That leaves defending state champion McEachern (15-4, 8-2) trying to hold off Harrison (15-5, 7-3) and North Cobb (16-5, 6-4) for the second seed in the upcoming region tournament. McEachern is 5-3 in its past eight games.
- Stockbridge at McIntosh (boys): Stockbridge (16-4, 11-2) moved into the Class AAAAA rankings this week at No. 10, a reward for its current 10-game winning streak. No. 2 McIntosh (21-0, 14-0) is the only remaining unbeaten team in the classification. The Chiefs' top four scorers are juniors, led by Jordan Lyons (24 points per game) and Will Washington (11.5 points, 8.2 rebounds). Both teams lead their subregions in 4-AAAAA.
