The Class 5A basketball finalists are all very familiar with each other.
In the boys division, No. 1 Kell will play No. 2 Eagle’s Landing in a rematch of the 2023 championship game. In the girls division, No. 1 Maynard Jackson will play No. 3 Midtown for the fourth time this season.
The games will be played Thursday at the Macon Coliseum. The girls championship will be played at 5:30 p.m., with the boys to follow at 7:30 p.m.
None of the four finalists had any difficulty in their semifinal games.
Eagle’s Landing (23-7) won its 13th straight by defeating Maynard Jackson 69-51 and earned its fourth straight trip to the championship game. The Eagles trailed 17-10 when coach Elliott Montgomery called timeout and calmed the waters. They recovered to take a 30-21 halftime lead and scored the first nine points of the third quarter to put it away.
Dwight Brown (15 points) and John McQueen (10 points) did much of the damage on the inside and Bobby Buggs provided the outside punch with 18 points.
Kell advanced with a textbook example how to play great defense in its 66-34 semifinal win over Winder-Barrow. The Longhorns limited the Double-G Bulldoggs to nine first-half points.
The Longhorns were led by Cannon Richards with 14 points, Region 6 Player of the Year and South Florida signee C.J. Brown with 13 and Chris McLavish with 11.
Kell (27-3) has won 26 in a row since losing to Grayson on Nov. 24. The Longhorns won their opener over Greenforest (a Class A finalist), then lost to McEachern (a 7A finalist), Newton (a loser to McEachern in the second round) and Grayson (the other 7A finalist).
Jackson and Midtown both compete in Region 5 and are quite familiar with each other. They met twice in the regular season, with Jackson winning 55-47 at home and 61-58 at Midtown. Jackson beat Midtown 58-44 in the region championship game.
Jackson (28-1) has not been tested in the state playoffs and beat Cartersville 77-57 in the semifinal. Shakira Gresham scored 29 points and led the Jaguars into the final for the first time in eight years. Jackson broke open a competitive game by scoring the final 16 points of the first half. Taliah Gresham added 18 points for Jackson.
Midtown (27-5) broke open a close game with a 16-0 run in the fourth quarter and defeated Dalton 73-63. The Knights got 22 points from Briaiah Lewis, 18 points from Sinclair Richman,14 points from Devin Bockman and 10 from Cate Barton.
Jackson’s only loss came against North Paulding, which is playing in the Class 7A final.
