Section Branding
Header Content
GHSA Basketball Championships: Day 1 Recap
Primary Content
The first day of the Georgia High School Association basketball championships was filled with excitement. Two games were determined at the buzzer and another required overtime.
Here’s a look at the four championship games played on Wednesday:
Class A Private boys: Kasheem “Kash” Grady came up with a steal with four seconds left and hit the game-winning jumper at the buzzer to give Mt. Pisgah a 43-41 win over Holy Innocents’. It was the first state championship for the Patriots, who trailed by eight points with two minutes remaining.
Nate Gordon led Mt. Pisgah with 14 points and 10 rebounds and JoJo Peterson added 11 points and six rebounds. Grady scored eight.
Holy Innocents’ (16-4) was led by Landon Kardian with 14 points and Garrison Powell with 13 rebounds.
Class A Private girls: Malia Fisher had 18 points and 11 rebounds to lead Hebron Christian to its first state championship, a 51-46 win over St. Francis in overtime. Fisher was 7-for-10 from the floor and added two blocked shots for the Lions (29-2). Nicole Azar scored 11 points and Jessie Parish had nine points and 11 rebounds.
St. Francis (23-5) got 18 points from Mia Moore, including two free throws with 0.4 seconds remaining to send the game into overtime. Moore also had seven rebounds. Erica Moon scored 14 points and had seven rebounds.
Class 4A girls: Kionna Gaines, who has signed with Clemson, tallied 24 points and nine rebounds to lead Carver-Columbus to a 70-54 win over Cairo and give the school its second state title in three years. The Tigers also won it all in 2019.
Carver (15-2) also got 16 points from D’Miya Beacham and 10 points and eight rebounds from Enyshuan Jones. Cairo (18-2) was led by Ambria Vicks with 19 points and 14 rebounds and Leah Perry with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Cairo led 23-20 after one quarter, but the Tigers outscored the Syrupmakers by 12 in the second period to take a 31-32 lead and were never threatened again.
Class 4A boys: William Freeman hit a short jump shot in the lane with 3.8 seconds left to give Baldwin a 54-53 win over Fayette County and earn the Braves their first state championship since 1981. Freeman finished with 12 points.
Baldwin (17-0) also got 12 points from Rudolph Satcher and 11 points from Lataeveon Roach.
Fayette County (18-12) was led by Terry Brown with 14 points and eight rebounds and Tariq Mumphery scored 11. Kaleb Banks, the Region 5 player of the year, played only three minutes in the first half after a cut above his right eye required stitches. He still scored eight points and had seven rebounds.