10 best region high school basketball tournaments this week in Georgia

Region 4-6A: This is the only region in the highest class with three ranked teams — No. 3 Grayson, No. 6 Newton and No. 7 Archer. Grayson, the 2024 Class 7A champion, swept the region schedule. Archer, the host school, and Newton split their regular-season meetings. The semifinals are Thursday, the final and third-place game Saturday.

Region 4-4A: Three top-10 Class 4A teams are playing for this title at Pace Academy. They are No. 1 Creekside, No. 7 Midtown and No. 10 Jackson-Atlanta. Creekside, which is undefeated, beat the other two by an average of 19 points per game, but hasn’t won a region title since 2001. The semifinals are Thursday, the final and third-place game Saturday.

Region 2-3A: Three ranked teams — No. 5 Fayette County and No. 6 Sandy Creek in 3A and No. 9 Trinity Christian in 3A-A private — populate this region. Trinity Christian beat Fayette last week, knocking the Tigers out of the No. 1 ranking, but was blown out in the first meeting. Fayette beat Sandy Creek twice by close margins. The semifinals are Thursday, the final and third-place game Saturday, at Sandy Creek.

Region 2-A Division I: Five of this region’s 10 teams have been ranked in the top 10 this year. Three currently are ranked — No. 5 Central-Macon, No. 7 Washington County and No. 8 ACE Charter. The others were Bleckley County and East Laurens. The semifinals are Friday, the final and third-place game Saturday, at Dublin.

Region 8-A Division I: Banks County is No. 1 in Class A Division I and seeking a third consecutive region title. Elbert County is No. 4. They split their regular-season meetings. Also in the region are No. 7 Athens Academy of 3A-A private, plus Providence Christian, which recently beat Elbert County, and perennial power Rabun County, which is down a bit this year. The tournament is being played at Piedmont University in Demorest.

Boys

Region 5-6A: No. 2 Wheeler must fend off No. 5 Etowah and No. 6 Walton, the host school, to win its fourth consecutive region title and 23rd in history. Etowah has won four region titles since 2017. Walton won titles in 2021 and 2022. The semifinals are Thursday, the final Friday.

Region 4-5A: No. 2 Woodward Academy (21-4) and No. 3 Tri-Cities (20-5) split their two regular-season games. Both won separate region titles last season. The final is Saturday at Woodward.

Region 5-4A: St. Pius (18-7) has won eight consecutive region titles but is seeded only fourth in this deep tournament at Tucker. It features No. 3 Southwest DeKalb (23-2), No. 9 Tucker (18-6) and Marist (18-7). All were 12-4 or better in region play. The semifinals are Thursday, the final and third-place game Friday.

Region 8-3A: No. 5 East Hall (21-4), No. 7 Jefferson (17-6) and No. 8 Cherokee Bluff (21-4, 7-3) are in this tournament at Cherokee Bluff, a seven-year-old Hall County school that has never won a region title. East Hall has won 30, though none since 2017. The semifinals are Wednesday and the final Friday.

Region 5-A Division I: This tournament has the most top-10 teams. They are No. 4 Walker (21-3), No. 8 St. Francis (15-9) and No. 9 Mount Bethel Christian (14-9) of the Class 3A-A division and No. 3 B.E.S.T. Academy (18-6) of Class A Division I. B.E.S.T. is the host school. The semifinals are Thursday, the final and third-place game Saturday. B.E.S.T. has never won a region title.