Region 8-AA tourney loaded with ranked teams

BUFORD - Region 8-AA owns the two best teams in Class AA in the final rankings with the East Hall boys and Wesleyan girls both ranked No. 1, where both have sat for most of the season.

But, the key to the Region 8-AA Tournament, which begins Monday, on the girls side anyway, may have been decided by a series of coin tosses to determine the Nos. 2 through 4 seeds in the South subregion on Sunday.

And, the Buford girls lost all the coin tosses with Greater Atlanta Christian and East Hall.

Or did they?

In the end the Lady Wolves, who ended up with the No. 4 seed, may have won as they get to play host to the play-in games Monday, and also avoid No. 1 Wesleyan, at least until the region finals, in the playoffs.

Meanwhile, the East Hall girls may have gotten the worst luck finishing third and will have to play Wesleyan in the region semifinals, if they get that far. The Lady Vikings will play Dawson County Tuesday in the quarterfinals, which will be held at the Dawson County gym.

"We're not disappointed in third because we played well down the stretch to get us in a position to finish second," East Hall girls coach Allen Pritchett said. "But, obviously we would have prefered not to be on Wesleyan's side. We knocked them off last year so maybe we can do it again. But we have to be ready for Dawson first or we won't get that chance."

Other ranked teams in the girls tournament are GAC seventh and Buford eighth. East Hall has been ranked off-and-on most of the season.

Other ranked boys teams are Buford sixth and Wesleyan seventh. GAC was ranked early on in the season.

The South seedings for the girls are: 1. Wesleyan; 2. GAC; 3. East Hall; 4. Buford; and 5. Providence Christian.

The North seedings are: 1. Lumpkin County; 2. Dawson County; 3. banks County; 4. Rabun County; and 5. Union County.

There were no surprises on the boys draw. The South seedings for the boys are: 1. East Hall; 2. Wesleyan; 3. Buford; 4. GAC; and 5. Providence Christian.

The North seedings for the boys are: 1. Lumpkin County; 2. Union County; 3. Banks County; 4. Dawson County; and 5. Rabun County.

Play-in games for Monday are: at Buford, the Buford girls vs. Providence at 6 p.m. and the GAC boys vs. Providence at 7:30 p.m.

At Rabun County, the Rabun County girls vs. Union County at 6 p.m. and the Rabun County boys vs. Dawson County at 7:30 p.m.

The quarterfinals begin at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Dawson County.