About The champion newspaper. (Decatur, GA) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 15, 2024)
SPORTS THE CHAMPION, THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 15 -21, 2024 • PAGE 9 Basketball region tournaments underway Tucker’s boys’ team took home Class 5A Region 4’s top seed, which also made Tucker the host of the girls’ and boys’ region tournaments. File photos Columbia’s boys’ and girls’ teams will play at Eagle’s Landing Christian Academy on Feb. 16, if they advance to the championship games. BY JAY PHILLIPS JAY@DEKALBCHAMP.COM With playoff basketball around the corner, region tournaments must finish by Feb. 17 — and several DeKalb teams are already slated for semifinal region games after receiving opening-round byes. Some of the teams that finished in first or second place in the region in the regular season will have No. 1 and No. 2 seeds and receive a bye or a double-bye until the semifinal round of their region tournament. Most opening-round games had not been played at press time, so semifinal and final matchups were also unknown at press time. Boys' region tournament schedules After taking the number one seed in Class 6A Region 4, St. Pius X Catholic High School's boys' team will play its first region tournament game on Feb. 15. Lakeside DeKalb, Dunwoody, and Marist are all possible opponents for St. Pius in the semifinals or finals. The consolation game, semifinal game, and final game will be played at 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 15 and Feb. 16 at Riverwood High School. The Class 5A Region 4 tournament will be played at Tucker High School and features an all- DeKalb field. Tucker and Decatur—the region's top two seeds—received bye games ahead of the Feb. 14 semifinal matchups. Lithonia, Arabia Mountain, M.L. King, and Chamblee make up the rest of the field with the championship game scheduled for Feb. 16 at 8:30 p.m. Class 4A Region 6 also has a strong DeKalb contingency, with Miller Grove, Clarkston, Druid Hills, Southwest DeKalb, Stephenson, and Stone Mountain on the schedule. No DeKalb teams in the region secured a top two spot, so local teams must win their opening-round games to play in the semifinal and championship games scheduled for Holy Innocents High School. Semifinals will occur on Feb. 16 at 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. The championship game is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 17. Class 2A Region 5 also has plenty of DeKalb teams active. Columbia secured the top seed, but the 2A Region 5 tournament did not include bye games, so the Eagles must win two games to reach the championship scheduled for 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 16 at Eagle's Landing Christian Academy. McNair, Redan, and Towers also had a chance to advance to the finals. Drew Charter played in the Class 2A Region 6 tournament and—if it advanced to the championship game—will play on Feb. 16 at 8:30 p.m. at Mt. Paran High School. Southwest DeKalb hosted the Class 1A D-ll Region 7 championship game on Feb. 12, which included top- seeded Greenforest against Christian Heritage. Results were unknown at press time. Girls' region tournament schedules Class 6A Region 4 also features DeKalb teams in the top spots, with Marist and Lakeside both receiving double byes to advance to semifinal games scheduled for Feb. 15 at Riverwood High School. Lakeside will play at 4 p.m.; Marist will play at 7 p.m. The consolation game is scheduled for Feb. 16 at 4 p.m. with the championship scheduled for 7 p.m. at Riverwood. Class 5A Region 4 will be an all- DeKalb field on the girls' side as well, with Arabia Mountain and Chamblee holding the top two sides and getting double byes ahead of the Feb. 14 semifinal games. M.L. King, Decatur, Lithonia, and Tucker are also in the tournament. Winners will play at Tucker for the championship on Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. The consolation game is scheduled for 4 p.m. Stone Mountain, Clarkston, Southwest DeKalb, and Miller Grove all played in the Class 4A Region SEE PLAYOFF ON PAGE 10 SWD coach hits 500 wins BY MARK BROCK Southwest DeKalb High School's head girls' basketball coach Kathy Richey-Walton reached 500 career wins on Feb. 7 when her Lady Panthers squad defeated the Stephenson Lady Jaguars 53- 26 at Stephenson. Walton entered the season at 481-160 and has gone 19-5 for a total of 500 wins and 165 losses. She has a 75.2 win percentage in 22 seasons at Southwest DeKalb and is the third winningest active DeKalb County coach behind Columbia boys' head coach Phil McCrary (717-242, five state titles) and Stephenson girls' head coach Dennis Watkins (532-215, three state titles). "A lot of people contributed to the 500 wins," said Walton. "Not only the players and coaches, but the parents, administrators, teachers, students and the Southwest DeKalb community made the 500 wins possible." Walton—the court at Southwest DeKalb has been named in her honor—has five state championships to her name at Southwest DeKalb. Her teams won three titles in a row from 2008-2010 and returned to the top in 2013 and 2016. Southwest DeKalb made eight state championship game appearances in her first 21 seasons and 18 playoff appearances. The 18 appearances include 10 semifinal appearances, 10 Elite 8 appearances, and 15 Sweet 16 appearances. The Lady Panthers' program is currently on an 11-playoff appearance streak, after last missing the playoffs in 2011. The only other non playoff seasons were in 2004 (the only losing season in Walton's time at Southwest DeKalb) and 2005. Her staff includes Terrie Montgomery, Joyce Paul, Michael Holloway, and lesha Gilliam. "I feel extremely blessed to have the good fortune to be surrounded by so many people SEE SWD ON PAGE 10
