Albany-area basketball teams making playoff run

ALBANY — Numerous area basketball teams are among the final eight in the Georgia High School Association state tournaments including two Dougherty County schools.

The Terrell County and Calhoun County girls will face each other in a Class A public school quarterfinal at Valdosta State. Terrell beat Hancock Central in the first round while Calhoun defeated Mitchell County.

The two teams are scheduled to tipoff at 3:00 p.m. on Friday.

Also in Class A public school boys play, Calhoun County is set to take on Turner County. The Cougars knocked off Clinch County in their opening round matchup. That game is set to tip at 4:45 on Friday at VSU.

One of the most intriguing matchups will take place in the Class AA girls tournament. The Pelham girls will face Holy Innocents Episcopal School Friday at 3 p.m. at Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville.

Pelham will be looking for revenge as they were knocked out by Holy Innocents in the semifinals last year. Holy Innocents eventually lost to Wesleyan in the championship game.

The Lady Hornets have just one loss on the season. They dismantled Lamar County in the first round of the postseason and stomped Manchester in the second round.

One of the most unlikely stories comes from Westover. The Patriots entered the Region 1-AAAA tournament as the No. 5 seed but knocked off Americus-Sumter, Monroe and Bainbridge on the way to a region title.

“The team has really been communicating and believing what the coaches are saying,” Westover coach Dallis Smith said. “As a team, we’ve been able to look at the things we were doing wrong and work on them to get better.”

The Patriots squeaked by Eastside in the first round of the state tournament and eliminated Woodward Academy in the second.

Westover will face Grady at 4:45 p.m. at Fort Valley State University on Friday. Grady is led by senior guard and Bucknell signee Avi Toomer.

While Monroe failed to win the region tournament, the Tornadoes have put together an impressive season. They have lost just twice in their last 17 games.

The Tornadoes made quick work of Walnut Grove in the first round of the state tournament, winning 71-45.

The second round was much closer as Monroe went to overtime with Fayette County before beating them. The Monroe seniors have played a crucial part in getting the team to a place they’ve never been before.

“They are really focused along with being excited,” Monroe coach Marquis Davis said. “Our main thing is to just stay with the vision. The vision is to go as far as we can in these state playoffs. We’ve talked about it and prepared for it. The only thing that we can do now is go out and execute.”

Monroe will have a tough task in the quarterfinals when they face Liberty County. The Panthers get tremendous guard play from junior Davion Mitchell, who has signed with Auburn and Richard LeCounte, who is a five-star football player who is verbally committed Georgia.

“I do know they have some athletic guards up front that play really well together,” Davis said.

The Tornadoes will play Thursday night at 8:15 p.m. at Fort Valley.