Class AAAAAAA
1. Collins Hill (12-1)
2. McEachern (6-3)
3. Campbell (8-1)
4. Parkview (10-3)
5. Cherokee (14-3)
6. Marietta (7-4)
7. North Paulding (11-3)
8. North Forsyth (11-2)
9. South Forsyth (15-2)
10. Brookwood (6-4)
Class AAAAAA
1. Westlake (8-0)
2. Carrollton (13-1)
3. Langston Hughes (12-1)
4. Buford (9-0)
5. Lovejoy (11-4)
6. Sprayberry (9-2)
7. Kell (9-3)
8. Rockdale County (10-2)
9. Statesboro (11-0)
10. Sequoyah (10-3)
Class AAAAA
1. Forest Park (8-2)
2. Woodward Academy (5-1)
3. Maynard Jackson (11-2)
4. Southwest DeKalb (7-2)
5. Loganville (12-2)
6. St. Pius X (11-1)
7. Cass (14-0)
8. Hiram (7-2)
9. Griffin (8-4)
10. New Manchester (8-3)
Class AAAA
1. Jefferson (9-2)
2. Luella (13-2)
3. Marist (9-1)
4. Troup County (4-4)
5. Carver-Columbus (4-2)
6. Arabia Mountain (4-0)
7. Cedar Shoals (8-2)
8. Baldwin (5-0)
9. Spalding (10-3)
10. McDonough (7-2)
Class AAA
1. Lumpkin County (11-3)
2. Coahulla Creek (13-1)
3. Johnson-Savannah (6-1)
4. Sonoraville (9-2)
5. Cross Creek (4-2)
6. GAC (5-4)
7. Upson-Lee (8-0)
8. Beach (6-3)
9. Westminster (4-1)
10. Redan (5-1)
Class AA
1. Early County (7-0)
2. Rabun County (11-0)
3. Washington County (4-0)
4. Elbert County (9-2)
5. Woodville-Tompkins (9-1)
6. Heard County (11-3)
7. Northeast-Macon (5-1)
8. Fannin County (7-4)
9. Dade County (4-2)
10. Banks County (11-7)
Class A-Private
1. Mt. Paran (14-2)
2. Hebron Christian (11-2)
3. St. Francis (9-3)
4. ELCA (9-0)
5. Galloway (11-0)
6. Wesleyan (6-1)
7. Holy Innocents’ (2-3)
8. Greenforest (4-3)
9. Calvary Day (8-1)
10. Tallulah Falls (8-3)
Class A-Public
1. Calhoun County (3-1)
2. Greenville (3-0)
3. Lake Oconee Academy (11-0)
4. Clinch County (4-1)
5. Turner County (9-1)
6. Dublin (9-2)
7. GMC (4-1)
8. Trion (9-3)
9. Wilcox County (2-0)
10. Pelham (2-0)
It was a big week as three No. 1 ranked teams lost and two classifications see new top dogs.Class 7A No. 1 Collins Hill lost their first game of the season after beating No. 10 Brookwood 64-59. The Eagles fell to Class A-Private No. 2 Hebron Christian 69-61, UNC Greensboro-signee Jailah Clark-Jones scoring 20 to lead Collins Hill. Even with the loss, the Eagles remain on top of the poll. Brookwood slides four spots after also losing to rival No. 4 Parkview 68-59. Diana Collins’ 19 points weren’t enough as Nadya McCown exploded for 28 and Samford-signee Sussy Ngulefac added 18 points. No. 8 North Forsyth sinks a spot following a 43-26 loss at Class 5A No. 5 Loganville, unable to score with Anna Gliatta unavailable. No. 6 Marietta and No. 7 North Paulding both rise. The Blue Devils picked up wins over North Cobb (54-35) and Pope (76-46) while the Wolfpack beat Walton (52-42) and East Paulding (76-41). The free fall of Woodstock (8-6) is complete, losing 52-37 to River Ridge. It was just two weeks ago the Wolverines were sitting pretty at No. 3 but they have lost four out of their last six. Debuting in the poll is No. 9 South Forsyth. The War Eagles have the most wins in the entire state regardless of classification. They are a talented young team loaded with a special sophomore class. 5-foot-6 Sharon Tolliver has enjoyed a breakout season, scoring the ball from all three levels and carrying the offense with her perimeter shooting. 5-foot-8 Clara Morris, 5-foot-7 Maggie Thompson and 6-foot-2 Ava McGlockton round out a 2023 core that all plays together year-round with Essence Xtreme, building a terrific chemistry. Riding a 10-game winning streak, the War Eagles have beaten who they are supposed to beat, but they still have some work to do in Region 6. Their last loss came 67-63 to West Forsyth and they are scheduled to host No. 8 North Forsyth this Friday. The War Eagles will need to prove they can beat two of the region’s best in order to secure a favorable seed heading into the postseason.
It’s going to be a slugfest in Region 4-6A this week. No. 1 Westlake is on the road vs. No. 5 Lovejoy and No. 3 Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes is coming off a nice 68-60 win at last week’s Class A-Private No. 3 Holy Innocents’. Don’t look now, but No. 4 Buford is finally back. After over a month layoff, the Wolves got to work with four quick wins highlighted by victories over last week’s Class 3A No. 8 Stephens County 79-47 and No. 6 GAC 72-44. Georgia College-signee Ashyia Willis and freshman Ava Grace Watson scored 14 apiece against the Spartans. Flau’jae Johnson took over in the final minute of the game to push No. 6 Sprayberry past No. 7 Kell 70-66 surviving Crystal Henderson’s 8 threes and 36 points. No. 9 Statesboro earned wins over Richmond Hill (46-37) and Glynn Academy (51-36), both coming on the road. Heritage-Conyers (6-3) is out of the poll. They’ve struggled to stay in the rankings dating back to last year as they lost to Grovetown for the fourth time in a row, 48-44. They are replaced by No. 10 Sequoyah, winners of 8-straight and slowly starting to get healthy. The Chiefs haven’t had their full roster all season but 5-foot-10 sophomore Elle Blatchford has carried the team. She picked up an offer from Vanderbilt last week and is averaging 16.2 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 4.5 steals. 5-foot-7 junior A’ryn Jackson provides toughness and energy inside posting 10.2 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.2 steals.
The middle of Class 5A sees some movement as No. 4 Southwest DeKalb got 19 points and 12-13 shooting from the foul line from Pryia Thompson to hand No. 6 St. Pius X their first loss of the year 65-58. Taylor Christmas added 10 points for the Panthers while Karis Coleman led the Golden Lions with 14. St. Pius X slips two spots as No. 5 Loganville charges up two positions. They impressed in a 43-26 win in dominating fashion over Class 7A No. 8 North Forsyth. Sydney Bolden’s athleticism caused issues, the 5-foot-9 junior collecting 16 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 6 steals and 1 block. No. 8 Hiram maintains their rank after playing their first game since December 8th, losing 55-54 to East Coweta following nearly a month layoff. No. 9 Griffin earned wins over McIntosh 54-45 and Harris County 68-27. Warner Robins (8-3) drops out with a 47-36 loss at Houston County. Back in the rankings for the first time since Week 3 is No. 10 New Manchester. 6-foot-2 junior Kharyssa Richardson is averaging 19 points, 10.7 rebounds, 3.4 steals and 4 blocks.
Things are getting a little shaky at the top of Class 4A. It took an Allianne Clark three-pointer with 3 seconds left to force overtime before No. 1 Jefferson finally put away Chestatee 68-64. Clark scored 12 points while the Dragons were led by Deshona Gaither’s 19 and North Georgia-signee Livi Blackstock’s 15 points. Courtney Kidd added 12 points. No. 4 Troup County didn’t have such magic, dropping two spots after losing 62-52 to East Coweta. Up a spot is No. 2 Luella who defeated No. 10 McDonough 61-48 behind Cortney Gardner’s 23 points, 2 assists and 4 steals, dropping the Warhawks four positions after also losing 51-40 to Union Grove. No. 3 Marist rounds out the Top 3, climbing two slots following a 55-35 win over Stephenson and more inactivity out of No. 5 Carver-Columbus. No. 6 Arabia Mountain jumps three places with wins over Druid Hills (63-58) and Miller Grove (62-40). No. 7 Cedar Shoals climbs three spots with their 55-41 win over Class 2A No. 4 Elbert County, 6-foot-1 senior Skylar Lattimore dumping in 17 points.
You never know what will happen in Class 3A when titans No. 3 Johnson-Savannah and No. 8 Beach clash – throw the records out the window. Beach stunned the Atomsmashers 48-44 to hand Johnson-Savannah their first loss of the season and drop them from atop their perch. North Florida-signee Kaila Rougier poured in 22 points before hurting her knee with 3:45 left, having to watch her teammates hold on for the win from the bench. Beach only moves up one spot though because without Rougier they fell to 3-9 Islands 46-40. Ascending to the top of the rankings is No. 1 Lumpkin County, winners of 9-straight. The Indians have gotten better and better as the season has gone on. They were slotted to debut in the Preseason Top 10, but double-double machine Kate Jackson tore her ACL in the offseason hurting their odds. Instead of having a “what-if” season, Coach David Dowse’s team has adapted and has rode their perimeter shooting to win after win. They picked up wins over Cherokee Bluff 74-28, almost cracked the century mark in a 99-20 victory over West Hall and then beat Dawson County 62-50. The Indians haven’t had a single digit win this season and their only three losses have come against undefeated Class 6A No. 4 Buford 53-40, Class 7A No. 8 North Forsyth 51-49 and Class 7A No. 5 Cherokee 58-43. Balanced scoring has led the Indians behind North Georgia-signee Isabel Davenport, freshman Averie Jones and sophomore Lexi Pierce, leaving Emmanuel-signee Makenzie Caldwell and Mary Mullinax to do the dirty work inside. Up in Northwest Georgia, No. 2 Coahulla Creek is having a banner year also. They beat LaFayette 63-42 before hammering Murray County 72-44 as Brinkley Kate Reed (19), Shorter-signee Katelyn Richards (19), Jillian Poe (16) and Ema Turner (10) all reached double figures. No. 4 Sonoraville is still hot, drilling Ringgold 69-43 while No. 6 GAC is slowly kicking into gear, romping Salem 84-16 and Carver-Atlanta 84-37 before dropping 72-44 to Class 6A No. 4 Buford. Kaleigh Addie piled in 40 points in the win over Carver. Stephens County (7-4) and Cedar Grove (2-1) exit the rankings. The Indians lost 79-47 at Buford and 56-52 at Franklin County while the Saints fell 44-40 at Sandy Creek. Two more Region 5 teams file into the poll in No. 9 Westminster and No. 10 Redan, marking the sixth team out of the eight-team region to appear in the rankings. Westminster is back in after a long hiatus and postponement after postponement. They last were ranked in Week 3. The Wildcats got wins over Carver-Atlanta 62-39, Salem 62-12 and pounded two-time Class 2A State Champion Douglass 69-36. 6-foot-1 sophomore Courtney Ogden is averaging 17 points, 8.7 rebounds, 2 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.3 blocks. Redan saw cancelations thwart their ability to make a statement last week but they are a sneaky good team that beat Druid Hills 43-42 to open the season and then lost by just four to No. 6 GAC 49-45. 5-foot-5 junior Jayla Cook is non-stop energy and has built off her strong camp at PRO Resolution. I tabbed her has a stock riser and she hasn’t disappointed, averaging 18 points, 6.5 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 4.2 steals. 5-foot-1 sophomore Kennedy Daniels is averaging 15.3 points while junior LoyalTee McKinzie is pitching in 11.2 points.
Class 2A has a lot of moving pieces outside of the top two. No. 3 Washington County rises after blasting Dodge County (6-3) out of the rankings with a 72-30 throttling. No. 4 Elbert County holds onto their spot after winning at No. 10 Banks County 54-41 but losing 55-41 to Class 4A No. 7 Cedar Shoals. No. 5 Woodville-Tompkins has slipped two spaces with a 40-38 loss at East Laurens. No. 6 Heard County took care of Lithia Springs 57-46 on the road to move up. Josey (3-4) has been a flat-out disappointment. They lost 43-40 at Butler and now play at Laney on Tuesday who owns them with 34-straight wins. No. 7 Northeast-Macon and No. 8 Fannin County are back in the rankings. Northeast-Macon climbs back in after last gracing the poll in Week 3. They helped boot Dodge County out of the poll with a 64-39 win, 5-foot-7 junior Jakia Little pouring in 26 points and 6 rebounds while junior Shykya Dean scored 16 and sophomore Shadae Thorpe added 14 points, 10 rebounds and 6 steals. To no surprise, Little has been the catalyst this season averaging 20.7 points, 9.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 5.7 steals. Fannin County got back on track with a 68-65 win at Chattooga returning to the poll for the first time since Week 5.
The changing of the guard is complete in Class A-Private. No. 1 Mt. Paran finally beat No. 3 St. Francis after years of wars, 64-51. 6-foot junior Kara Dunn is a bona fide superstar and one of the best players in the entire country. St. Francis was her latest victim, schooling them with 39 points, 12 rebounds, 4 steals and 5 blocks. She poured in 31 points earlier in the week in a 57-27 win over Darlington and is making a case for Class A-Private Player of the Year and possibly Sandy’s Spiel Miss Basketball. Below Mt. Paran is No. 2 Hebron Christian, who defeated Class 7A No. 1 Collins Hill 69-61, as good a win in Georgia as possible. Rice-signee Malia Fisher posted 25 points and 10 rebounds while Samford-signee Nicole Azar netted 13 points and Jessie Parish collected 11 points and 6 rebounds. Samford-bound wing Carly Heidger added 10 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. The win is so good, it jumps them over No. 4 ELCA who holds a 51-50 head-to-head win over the Lions. Sinking four spots and loosening up the polls, giving us the widest variety of teams we’ve seen in the Top 5 since Sandy’s Spiel started, is No. 7 Holy Innocents’. After a long grueling layoff, the Golden Bears fell 68-60 to Class 6A No. 3 Langston Hughes. No. 6 Wesleyan moves up following a 63-48 win over West Forsyth, getting 21 points from freshman Eva Garabadian and 14 points, 13 rebounds, 6 assists and 5 steals from Georgia State-signee Alyssa Phillip.
In Class A-Public, No. 2 Greenville handled Taylor County 57-36. No. 3 Lake Oconee Academy moves up following a No. 5 Turner County loss at Brooks County 58-41, dropping the Rebels two positions. They bounced back however by beating 10-2 Charlton County 55-48. No. 4 Clinch County earned a tough road win at Pierce County 53-51, riding Angel McRae (23) and Zyhia Johnson (18) to 41 combined points. Exiting the poll is Dooly County (2-2) who is replaced by No. 6 Dublin, who beat the Bobcats 50-33. The Fighting Irish have been impressive since dropping down from Class 2A. They finished 7-17 in a difficult Region 3 which housed powers Washington County, state runner-up Southwest-Macon, Northeast-Macon and East Laurens and are better for it, already surpassing last year’s win total with 9. Their only losses have come to 5-2 East Laurens 42-40, who they beat 37-30 in their rematch and 5-0 Class 4A No. 8 Baldwin 48-40. 5-foot-10 senior Brianna McRae is averaging 21.7 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 5.3 steals as an active long-armed slasher.