This weekend the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) will start the football state playoffs, joining the South Carolina High School League (SCHSL), which is in its second round of postseason action. The GHSA basketball regular season will tip off Friday, and all eyes locally will be on a high profile invitational tournament at Westside High School.
Augusta University’s men’s basketball team will also tip off its regular season Friday in North Carolina, where the No. 2 ranked Jaguars will play two games in two days against familiar non-conference foes. And the university’s volleyball team will attempt to win its fifth consecutive Peach Belt Conference tournament championship in front of a home crowd at Christenberry Fieldhouse.
Below are the details and a preview of the busiest and most impactful weekend of local sports so far in the current scholastic season.
MORE: Player Talk: Best of the Best, Region Championship Edition
GHSA Football Playoffs
Class 1A (Division II)
No. 8 Lincoln County received a bye past this week’s round after compiling an 8-2 overall record and earning a region 8 championship with a 5-0 mark. Observers have expressed optimism that the Red Devils can make a deep run, and I share that sentiment. Fellow region mates Washington-Wilkes and Aquinas have to hit the road this Friday for round one because Greene County secured the region’s second seed through the tie breaker process after the three teams ended the regular season with identical 3-2 records. Washington-Wilkes (7-3) is the three-seed and the Tigers will visit Mt. Zion (5-5). Aquinas (7-3) drew the shortest straw, and the Fightin’ Irish will travel to Bowdon County, the No. 1 ranked team in the class.
Class 2A
No. 4 Thomson (9-1), the champion of region 4, will host Tattnall County (5-5), the four-seed from a strong region 3. The Bulldogs have the ingredients to go all the way. Fifth year head coach Michael Youngblood has developed the class’s second highest scoring offense (43.9 points per game), and the defense has been equally impressive, especially when it held region runner up Putnam County to a puny 97 yards of total offense in 41 plays three weeks ago.
As region four’s three-seed, Laney (8-2) will have to travel to No. 6 Pierce County, the high school home of the University of Georgia’s living legend of a quarterback Stetson Bennett IV, who graduated in 2017. This draw for the Wildcats is a tough break after losing two games by a total of 2 points. But Laney’s offensive and defensive line is the best I witnessed this season, and second year head coach Ronnie Baker’s three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust strategy travels well.
Class 3A
Harlem (9-1) will ride the good vibes of winning its first region title in 48 years into Saturday’s home game against four-seed (region 3) Long County. In Monday’s Best of the Best column, I described Harlem’s offensive scheme and the players who executed it to perfection in last Friday’s 34-17 region championship win over Morgan County. Since then multiple media outlets have highlighted Harlem’s defensive prowess because the Bulldogs have allowed only 11 points per game this season. We featured that unit in October after it held Hephzibah’s capable offense to 14 points in what turned out to be the only close region game Harlem played this season.
Three-seed Hephzibah (6-4) will travel to Savannah Christian (9-1).
Class 4A
Despite being the three seed in region 3, Burke County (8-2) deserves the label of the CSRA’s best team after defeating No. 4 Thomson (class 2A) and No. 9 Oconee County (3A). The Bears had the misfortune of being in the same region as No. 4 Benedictine and losing in overtime at No. 7 Wayne County on the road in a game in which head coach Eric Parker had to be taken to the hospital in the second quarter. Things won’t get easier for Burke County Friday when the Bears travel to No. 10 LaGrange (8-2), the second seed for region 4.
Class 6A
Evans (4-6) squeaked into the playoffs with a win over South Effingham last Friday. Awaiting the Knights will be No. 2 Thomas County Central, who is unbeaten for the season.
MORE: Harlem’s first region championship since 1974 with win over Morgan County
SCHSL Football Playoffs (Second Round)
Class 1A
Region 4 champion Wagener-Salley (8-3) will host CA Johnson (7-4) Thursday at 7:00 P.M. I’ll be present to see if the War Eagles can win their eighth straight game and make it to the quarterfinal round, so expect an update from that game here some time during the next several days.
Class 2A
Speaking of an eight game winning streak, that is the current run for region 4 champion Strom Thurmond (8-3) leading into Friday night’s home game against Keenan (7-4). If the Rebels can defend their home field they will have the privilege of playing there again a week later in the quarterfinal round against the winner of Friday’s game between Gray Collegiate, the defending state champion, and Saluda, the bitter rival of the Rebels.
Strom Thurmond joins Barnwell, Thomson and Lincoln County in what might be called the “they really could win it all” club. As we outlined in Monday’s column, Thurmond’s defense is stingy to say the least. Additionally, the connection between quarterback Quan Edmond and receiver Gregory Bryant might be the most electric one I’ve seen this season.
Barnwell (11-0) will be the favorite when the Warhorses host Andrews (9-2) Friday, and Silver Bluff (6-5) will also be at home against Fairfield Central (8-3).
Class 5A
North Augusta (6-5) will need every bit of the momentum it has built during a five game winning streak when the Yellow Jackets host Catawba Ridge (10-1) Friday.
Westside High to Host Inaugural Ricky Moore Invitational to Introduce the High School Hoops Season
The buzz from last March hasn’t even worn off from when four area high school basketball teams won state championships in their respective classes. Nevertheless, a new season will begin again already this Friday when the Ricky Moore Invitational at Westside High School will feature three boys games whose profile will climb with each contest.
The finale for the evening has been dubbed the main event by die hard high school hoops fans. Grovetown, ranked No. 17 in the nation in the Preseason MaxPreps Top 25 poll, will meet host Westside at 8:30 P.M. Grovetown is the class 6A defending state champion, and Westside returns as the 2A champ. Both teams return almost all of their key players from last season, and both teams have been picked to repeat as the state champion of their respective class. Friday’s battle will be for the kind of bragging rights that last almost as long as the buzz has from last season’s championship run.
The second game will feature another returning state champion, Augusta Christian, who took the South Carolina Independent School Association (SCISA) title last year. The opponent for the Lions will be Butler, which made it all the way to the class 2A state championship game before falling to Westside last season. The event’s opening game, which is set to tip off at 5:30 P.M., will pit Laney against Jones County.
Ricky Moore led Westside to a state championship and a No. 9 national ranking in USA Today in 1995. And he helped lead UConn to the NCAA national championship in 1999 before a decade-long professional playing career overseas. Then he was an assistant coach at Dartmouth and UConn before becoming a head coach last year for Northwest Cabarrus High School in North Carolina.
MORE: Basketball Jags ranked No. 2 and ready to hit court
Augusta University Athletics Takes Center Stage
Sunday evening at a “meet and greet” held for the men’s basketball team ahead of its first regular season game, brand new athletic director Ryan Erlacher described the current momentum behind Augusta athletics.
“Yesterday we had an incredible day,” Erlacher recounted. “We had a Peach Belt Conference championship (men’s cross country) in the morning. Our men’s team took first, our women third. Then we had volleyball in the afternoon. We won a regular season championship for volleyball. And then obviously we had a great basketball (exhibition) game in the afternoon. I was so impressed with our student athletes yesterday.”
Erlacher noted “how excited and enthusiastic this fanbase is for Augusta basketball,” which is no surprise after nineteenth year head coach Dip Metress’s team made it all the way to the NCAA Division II championship game last season. The Jaguars will open the regular season this Friday on the road against Mount Olive, and the following day Augusta will face Barton on the same floor. This weekend will be the sixth time in the last seven years that the season will have begun with this same sequence of opening games. Augusta has won 8 of the 10 games played against Mount Olive and Barton during that stretch as the Jaguars have won 4 of 5 games against both opponents.
The Jaguars are ranked No. 2 in the NCAA preseason poll and were picked unanimously by the coaches to repeat as the Peach Belt Conference champion in the PBC Season Preview. After this weekend’s trip to North Carolina, Augusta will return for the regular season home opener Sunday, November 20 at 4:00 P.M. against Fayetteville State. Fans were given a preview for how exciting Augusta basketball will be during last Saturday’s exhibition game against Emory when sophomore sensation Ja’Queze Kirby made the uncommon look routine like only he can.
Augusta Volleyball to Host Peach Belt Conference Tournament
Augusta will aim to win its fifth straight conference tournament championship when it hosts the Peach Belt Conference tournament this weekend. The Lady Jaguars will face the winner of Georgia College and USC Aiken Friday at 4:30 P.M.
The winners of Friday’s semifinal matches will square off in the championship game Saturday at 1:00 P.M. More information about the tournament can be found at AugustaJags.com.
Follow Chad Cook’s coverage of local sports on Facebook and Instagram at @AugustaPressSports, and on Twitter at @AugPressSports.
