Boys basketball rankings: Tri-Cities enters state tournament No. 1

The Class AAAAAA boys basketball champion has come from Region 5 the past two seasons, each in the name of Langston Hughes of Fairburn.

Now, another south Fulton school, Tri-Cities of East Point, aims to pick up where Hughes left off. The Bulldogs will enter the state tournament ranked No. 1 after winning Region 5 last week with victories over No. 9 Hughes, 79-70, in the semifinals and No. 2 Alexander, 57-56, in the championship. All those Region 5 teams advanced to the state tournament.

Tri-Cities moved up from No. 3 in the rankings as previous No. 1 Coffee and No. 2 Sprayberry lost in their region finals.

Tri-Cities was ranked No. 1 through the first five weeks of the season, then watched three other teams (Coffee, Evans and Lakeside-Evans) come and go before getting another chance at the top. Tri-Cities has reached the quarterfinals of the state tournament the past two seasons but never made a state semifinal.

There also is a new No. 1 team in Class AAA. Morgan County took over for defending state champion Greater Atlanta Christian, which was beaten by No. 3 Dawson County 86-76 in the 7-AAA final. GAC had won 25 straight region games and beaten Dawson County twice this season. The Spartans remained one place ahead of No. 3 Dawson County in the rankings.

The GAC-Dawson County final was one of a several games last week between highly ranked teams from the same region.

Meadowcreek beat Norcross, 46-44, on a layup at the buzzer in overtime in the Region 7-AAAAAAA final that was a rematch of the 2018 state final. Norcross had beaten Meadowcreek the week prior. Meadowcreek enters the state tournament at No. 2; Norcross is No. 4.

No. 4 Cedar Grove beat No. 5 Pace Academy 48-46 in overtime of the Region 5-AAA final. In AA, No. 2 South Atlanta beat No. 3 Therrell for the second time in two weeks to win Region 6.

Among Class A private schools, No. 1 St. Francis defeated No. 4 Mount Bethel Christian 64-58 in the Region 6 final while No. 3 Eagle’s Landing Christian beat No. 2 Greenforest Christian 73-57 in the Region 5 final. ELCA and Greenforest swapped places in the rankings.

One of the bigger surprises of last week’s tournaments was Westlake, which won Region 2-AAAAAAA with victories over previous No. 6 Pebblebrook and No. 8 Wheeler. Westlake, previously unranked, is now No. 7. Previous No. 2 East Coweta, which entered 24-1, dropped to No. 5 after losing to Wheeler and Pebblebrook. Region 2 now has four ranked teams in the highest classification.

The only team ranked last week that didn’t make the state playoffs was Paulding County, which finished 21-5 after losing to sixth-place Villa Rica in the Region 7-AAAAA tournament.

First-round games in the state tournament will be Friday and Saturday at the home courts of the higher-seeded teams.

Class AAAAAAA

1 McEachern (27-0)

2 Meadowcreek (21-5)

3 Grayson (24-3)

4 Norcross (19-8)

5 East Coweta (24-3)

6 Pebblebrook (18-9)

7 Westlake (18-10)

8 Wheeler (17-11)

9 Newton (21-7)

10 Discovery (22-5)