If either the Johnson or Flowery Branch girls can come away with the championship beginning with Friday night's semifinals at the North Hall gym, it would mark the fourth different winner in the last four years.
Class AAA No. 9 Flowery Branch and East Hall will play at 4 p.m. while No. 1-ranked Gainesville and No. 4 Johnson will tangle at 7 p.m.
The loser's bracket of the tournament will tip-off at 4 p.m. Thursday at the East Hall gym with Chestatee playing West Hall and Lakeview Academy playing North Hall at 7.
Not since Gainesville-East Hall-North Hall-and Forsyth County won in succession from 1962-66 has that happened in the girls tournament.
"Gainesville is definitely the class of the county, but the girls tournament is usually a little more wide-open," Tournament Director Greg Williams said last week. "I didn't know that (about being that long with four different winners) but that's kind of interesting."
West Hall won the title in 2000 - the last of four straight titles - with East Hall winning in 2001 and Gainesville last year.
The Johnson girls (6-0) got the top seed but coach Benji Wood said last week it wasn't a reward.
"We get to play the No. 1 team in the state instead of being on the other side of the bracket. It's going to be tough," Wood said.
The Lady Elephants (9-2) have won eight straight since losing two straight to Class AAAAA teams.
After a strong start, Flowery Branch (7-2) is just 2-2 over the past two weeks. East Hall (7-1) has won five straight but needed two free throws in the final 10 seconds to get by Chestatee 41-39 last week in the opening round.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2003/12/167138