Jenna Staiti of West Forsyth scored 51 points in a state-playoff semifinal Saturday in Carrollton. That’s one point fewer than Veterans and Wayne County scored between them just hours before in another girls game in Fort Valley.
Veterans won 28-24 in the lowest-scoring semifinal since the girls went to the five-on-five format in 1975 and advanced to the Class AAAA final next weekend in Macon.
Staiti's effort – a career-best for the Maryland signee and 6-foot-5 post player – was not enough to get her team to the championship. Jada Lewis scored 36 points for defending AAAAAA champion McEachern, which defeated West Forsyth 81-70. (See Chip Saye's game story from the University of West Georgia.)
Here are more highlights from the 28 semifinals held at seven colleges around the state. Find game stories on all 28 on AJC.com.
GIRLS
-McEachern (24-7) will play No. 1 Tucker (27-4) in the championship and can become the first highest-classification school to win four girls titles in five seasons since Morrow (1989-93). Tucker beat No. 4 Douglas County 79-66. Tucker won a state title in 2014 before moving to the highest classification in 2015.
-Unranked Winder-Barrow (26-6), the fourth-place finisher from Region 8-AAAAA, continued its remarkable run with a 65-52 victory over third-ranked Brunswick (30-3). Winder-Barrow is in the state finals for the first time and will play No. 1 Southwest DeKalb (26-6), a 55-47 winner over Sequoyah. Southwest DeKalb has won four state titles since 2008, most recently 2013.
-No. 1-ranked Americus-Sumter (30-1), which had won only three state-playoff games until this season, dispatched Buford (25-6), the defending AAAA champion, 51-44. Next for Americus-Sumter is third-ranked Veterans (27-4), also playing in its first final.
-In AAA, No. 3 Maynard Jackson (30-1) reached its first-ever state final with a 72-63 victory over No. 4 Beach (26-5), the 2015 runner-up. Jackson now faces No. 1 Morgan County (27-3), which beat No. 8 Johnson-Savannah 69-45 and reached its first final since a 1983 state championship.
-No. 1 Holy Innocents’ and No. 3 Wesleyan will have a rematch of their 2015 AA championship game, won by Wesleyan. Holy Innocents’ (27-4) routed Putnam County 80-49 after taking a 30-6 lead. Wesleyan (27-4) beat Greater Atlanta Christian 78-48. Holy Innocents’ has beaten Wesleyan two of three meetings this season.
-Greenforest Christian (27-0), which had never advanced in a state tournament until this season, beat Eagle’s Landing Christian 46-39 in Class A private. Greenforest faces defending champion and No. 1 St. Francis (30-1), a 62-38 winner over Southwest Atlanta Christian.
-The Class A public final pits Turner County against Terrell County. Turner, a state runner-up in 2000 and 2015 but never champion, defeated Wheeler County 57-44. Terrell, a three-time state champion (1985, 1986, 2005), beat Greenville 63-56.
BOYS
-The Class AAAAAA final is between Region 3 rivals Westlake and Pebblebrook. Westlake, which is 3-0 against Pebblebrook this season, defeated Newton 64-59 and seeks its first state title since 2002. Pebblebrook, the 2015 runner-up but never a state champion, beat Milton 77-70. Collin Sexton scored 35 points.
-The AAAAA final is between No. 1 Allatoona, at 31-0 the only unbeaten boys team in any classification, and No. 2 Miller Grove (29-2), going for its seventh state title in eight seasons. Allatoona beat third-ranked Cedar Shoals 48-46. Miller Grove beat fourth-ranked McIntosh 72-52.
-Reigning AAAA champion Jonesboro overwhelmed second-ranked Grady 77-47 and now faces Liberty County, which had been 0-4 in semifinals until breaking through with a 67-52 victory over Lithonia. Auburn signee Davion Mitchell scored 33 points for Liberty.
-In AAA, third-ranked Morgan County beat fifth-ranked South Atlanta 64-61, erasing a 15-point third-quarter deficit. Jenkins, the defending champion, beat Cedar Grove 68-59.
-Second-ranked Pace Academy (20-9) reached its first-ever state final with a 61-51 victory over third-ranked Crawford County. Pace will play perennial contender Manchester (25-5), a 63-53 winner over Monticello. Manchester won a state title in 2007.
-The Class A private final has No. 1-ranked Greenforest Christian (28-2) against No. 2 St. Francis (23-7), the defending champion. Greenforest beat Stratford Academy 78-62. St. Francis beat Whitefield Academy 81-58. St. Francis' Kobi Simmons, an Arizona signee, scored 24 points a night after scoring 45 in the quarterfinals.
-Wilkinson County beat Treutlen 69-56 while Hancock Central beat Turner County 68-66 in A public. Hancock's Phillipe Scott scored the game-winning in the paint in the final 10 seconds. Wilkinson has won seven state titles, most recently in 2014. Hancock beat Wilkinson 70-62 in a regular-season game Jan. 9.
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