Is it March already? Because the upset madness in basketball playoffs is well underway. Everyone knows (and likely has experienced) the dominance of Sandy Creek’s basketball team. Even after losing Jabari Smith to Auburn, the Patriots put up a 26-3 record entering the second round of playoffs this season. As expected, their active 13-game win streak secured them the top spot in every 3A ranking. Then, they ran into Windsor Forest.
Windsor Forest was a very solid basketball team, but certainly hadn’t beat the caliber of teams that Sandy Creek had played, making their 20-5 record seem a little misleading. The Knights from Savannah had just lost to Groves less than a week ago in their region tournament and almost fell to Johnson-Savannah twice the week before. But it’s the state playoffs now, and anything can happen. As if on cue, the unexpected made an appearance as Windsor Forest shocked Sandy Creek 47-37 on the road in the second round of the state playoffs. That was the least amount of points scored by the Patriots in a game since 2015. The top-ranked team in 3A had fallen.
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If you think that Windsor Forest’s upset itself wasn’t enough to classify this basketball playoff round as “unexpected”, here’s another stunner. Pace Academy, a perennial power in 2A and winners of four of the last six state championships, fell to Butler, 60-56. This wasn’t a down year for the Knights either; they scored wins over McEachern, Sandy Creek, Eagle’s Landing prior to the start of 2022. In a No.1 vs. No.2 battle in 2A, Pace even knocked off region rival Columbia, 80-69. Butler, on the other hand, limped into the playoffs after a 14-point region championship loss. More importantly, the Bulldogs would have to compete in the playoffs without star Kedar Bodie, who fractured his foot in the region semifinals. Yet somehow, on a crazy night that also featured the Sandy Creek loss, Butler added their name to the upset list, stunning Pace Academy without their biggest contributor.
Marist is sending its boys and girls basketball teams to the Final Four this week.
Recaps from their Elite Eight wins with thoughts from head coaches Kim Hixon and John Bauersfeld: https://t.co/N6GQfT989z pic.twitter.com/lWSYXwyQL1
— Jay Phillips (@JayChampNews) March 2, 2022
While these were the biggest upsets of the second round basketball playoffs, several other teams got in on the Cinderella madness. No.4 Westside-Augusta defeated No.2 Columbia 82-72 in 2A and Marist crushed a top three Baldwin squad in 4A. 4A suffered another upset loss when No.2 Fayette County fell to Dougherty in a 66-65 thriller. Undefeated LaFayette’s season came to an end at the hands of Cross Creek. In 5A, Langston Hughes shocked No.6 Osborne, who had started their season off 16-0, and No.5 Jonesboro beat No.2 St. Pius X Catholic by one. Remember Groves, the team that beat Windsor Forest in the region tournament? Well, they had no interest in seeing a premature playoff exit as they outscored No.2 Greater Atlanta Christian in 3A, 54-44. Ultimately, the 2A and 3A rankings were ravaged, as three top five teams in each of those classifications are already out of the playoffs.
This may have been one of the craziest second rounds in the history of the GHSA Boys Basketball Playoffs. Will there be more to come in the following weeks?
