No. 1 teams hold spots as season winds down

All eight of the state’s No. 1-ranked girls basketball teams held their positions this week as the regular season comes to an end and the postseason begins.

Class 3A No. 1 Hebron Christian, the state’s only remaining unbeaten team, improved to 23-0 with lopsided road victories over Hart County and Monroe Area. The Lions will complete their regular season with home games against Franklin County today and Stephens County on Friday. Hebron Christian already has clinched the No. 1 seed in the Region 8-3A tournament.

Holy Innocents’ of Class 4A strengthened its hold on the No. 1 ranking with one of the more impressive victories of the week, a 64-57 win over Class 7A No. 4 Buford on Saturday. Holy Innocents’ faces Druid Hills (today) and Southwest Dekalb (Friday) this week before heading into the Region 6-4A tournament.

The other No. 1 teams are Brookwood in Class 7A, River Ridge in 6A, Kell in 5A, Mount Paran Christian in 2A, St. Francis in Class A Division I and Turner County in Class A Division II.

St. Francis (19-6) is the only No. 1-ranked team that lost last week, but that loss came against Class 6A No. 2 Lovejoy, 75-63 on the road. All of the Knights’ losses have come against out-of-state opponents or teams ranked in the top five in the three highest classifications.

Five new teams moved into the top 10s this week — Grayson and Cherokee replaced Campbell and Mceachern in Class 7A, Greenbrier replaced Jones County in 5A, Fannin County replaced Butler in 2A, and Darlington replaced Trion in A Division I.

Many of the state’s 64 regions will complete their regular seasons and/or begin their region tournaments at the end of this week. A few will get an earlier start on their tournaments. Region 3-6A, for example, will begin its tournament today. That region includes four of the top seven ranked girls teams (No. 2 Lovejoy, No. 3 Woodward Academy, No. 4 Forest Park, No. 7 Rockdale County) and two of the top nine boys teams (No. 4 Jonesboro, No. 9 Woodward Academy) in Class 6A.

The top-seeded Lovejoy girls and Jonesboro boys, however, have byes into the semifinals and won’t play their first games until Feb. 14.

The top four girls and boys teams from each region will advance to the state playoffs, which begin Feb. 21.