AA basketball blog: Hart boys better than record

Don’t be deceived by Hart County’s overall record. Despite their 6-7 mark, coach Eddie McCurley’s boys are a pretty fair team.

Hart has already established itself as the team to beat in Region 8-AA Subregion B. The Bulldogs are 4-0 in the league and have won three straight games. They’re record is just scarred by some tough out-of-conference and out-of-classification games.

Among Hart’s seven losses are two to larger schools from South Carolina, although it also has a win over Oakbrook Prep of South Carolina. Other losses have come against Class AAAAA Collins Hill, Class AAAA Madison County, and Class AAA Woodward Academy, Stephens County and Franklin County.

Hart has earned a reputation for playing good defense, but hasn’t shot the ball as well as it needs so far. Forward Stephon Eades (an all-tournament pick at Christmas) and point guard Jordan Carter have both played well for the Bulldogs.

Hart has already beaten Jefferson inside the subregion and has a key road game at Elbert County on Jan. 14.

Buford-GAC Round I

The first meeting of the year between Buford and Greater Atlanta Christian will take place Friday at GAC. The Buford girls (9-5) are ranked No. 1, with GAC (11-4) ranked No. 9. The GAC boys (11-4) are ranked No. 2, with Buford (11-3) ranked No. 3. The Buford girls and GAC boys are the reigning state champions.

Miscellaneous

Rabun County’s girls won’t be undefeated when it has a showdown with East Hall next week. The Wildcats were knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten on Tuesday, losing 58-54 to Banks County. No. 3 Rabun had won its first 14 games. Rabun meets No. 8 East Hall (11-1) on Jan. 20 in Gainesville. . . . Think Thomasville doesn’t miss Robert Carter, who transferred prior to the season. He had 21 points on Tuesday and his new Shiloh team is ranked No. 1 in the state.

Part 2: Region-by-region look at contenders

The next three blogs will look at the contenders in Class AA. Today is a look at the girls teams in Regions 1-4. On Wednesday we’ll look at the girls teams from Regions 1-4.

Region 1: Early County has an outstanding scorer in Justice Lee, who had a career-high 33 in last week’s win over Fitzgerald. It was her second 30-plus game of the year. Tynicia McCoy has been a beast on the boards. The Bobcats (11-1) have lost only to perennial Class A power Calhoun County, but have also beaten the Cougars twice.

Early’s main competition in the region is expected to come from Brooks County, which won eight of its first 10 games. Brooks and Early meet for the first time on Friday in Quitman.

Region 2: There appears to be three good teams competing in this region, although Jeff Davis seems to be a notch ahead of Tattnall County and Brantley County. Jeff Davis hasn’t lost a league game and already owns a three-point win over Brantley. But Brantley has beaten Tattnall and has two games remaining against Jeff Davis. It isn’t likely to be settled until the final week.

Region 3: Laney is easily the class of Subregion A, with Screven County a distant second. The two primary contenders met on Tuesday and Laney won 78-23, the 11th straight win for the Wildcats (14-1). Khadijah Cave leads a strong core of players for Laney. All four teams in Subregion B are solid, which should make some interesting back-and-forth in the tiny subregion. Dublin (11-4) has won five straight and beat Dodge County 65-60 on Tuesday. East Laurens is 10-5, but lost a 62-41 decision to Bleckley County on Tuesday.

Dodge is led by the duo of Kadayasha Jones (12.2 points, 8.0 rebounds) and Rachel Selph (11.9 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.3 assists). Dublin’s top player is Alexxus Holliman, who has proven to be a capable scorer and floor leader.

Region 4: This is an outstanding region for girls basketball, with Morgan County, Southwest Macon, Northeast Macon and Pike County all quality teams. Morgan appears to be the best of the lot, winning its first 11 games; the Bulldogs have a showdown at Southwest on Friday night. Northeast (10-4) took over second place in the subregion with a 43-41 win over Southwest.

What are your thoughts? Who did we miss?