Grayson defeats McEachern to win first boys basketball championship in team history

Grayson won the championship over McEachern behind a double-double from Jacob Wilkins and stifling defense on Ace Bailey from Anthony Alston.

For the first time in program history, Grayson boys basketball is atop the Georgia state championship throne.

The Rams took down McEachern and five-star recruit Ace Bailey by a final score of 51-41 on Saturday night to win the Class 7A state title. Entering the weekend ranked No. 8 in the country on the Super 25 national rankings, Grayson finishes its season with a record of 30-2 — bookended with a season-opening win and championship both over McEachern.

Jacob Wilkins, a four-star wing committed to Georgia, posted 12 points and a dozen rebounds for Grayson, according to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution. He led the charge on the glass, as Grayson outrebounded McEachern 47-27.

As important as the rebounding was 6-foot-2 guard Anthony Alston’s defense on Bailey, a 6-foot-8 wing committed to Rutgers. Bailey scored 14 in the first half before Alston told Grayson head coach Geoffrey Pierce to let him go one-on-one for defense instead of zone, according to the AJC.

“Alston was the defensive player in our region this year for a reason,” Pierce said to the outlet. “He’s one of the best defenders I’ve ever coached. He came to me at halftime and said, ‘Don’t go zone anymore. I’ve got him.’ So, hats off to him for that.”

Thanks to Alston’s physical defense, Bailey scored only four points in the second half.

McEachern led by two near the end of the first half before Grayson ended the first half on a 6-0 run and then started the second half on another 6-0 run, quickly switching the small deficit to a 10-point lead.

The Rams held on, winning the game by 10.

It’s been a long time coming for Grayson, who has advanced deep into the playoffs for years but had been unable to win the title. The Rams reached the quarterfinals six of the previous eight years, getting to the Final Four four times and the title game once, and that heartbreaking, one-point championship loss in 2020 was as close as you could come to grasping the trophy without touching it.

This year, they grabbed the trophy and would not relinquish it. The Grayson Rams have won the championship.

Cascade of upsets shakes up Georgia high school football rankings

Georgia was tied with Florida for the most teams in the Super 25 rankings. In the 7A quarterfinals, four of those teams were defeated. Let’s shake things up.

Georgia entered this week tied with Florida for most teams in the Super 25 national rankings (five each), making an argument as one of the two or three best high school football states of the 2023 season. On Saturday morning? It still may be one of the best, but it is infinitely more confounding.

Mill Creek (Hoschton, Ga.), ranked No. 10 in the nation, was 12-0 with a point differential of 481-182 (meaning an average score of 40-15) over the season and had won 20 games in a row stretching back to last season. With a Final Four appearance on the line, the Hawks fell 39-20 to the Camden County Wildcats (Kingsland, Ga.)

Camden County forced Mill Creek into its lowest-scoring performance of the season with a strong output from the defense that included a second-quarter interception on a screen pass and a fourth-quarter surge that didn’t allow a single point in the final 11 minutes of the game, helping the Wildcats increase its lead from 24-20 to a full two possessions.

Mill Creek, a surefire Super 25 team over the last couple of years, has fallen.

Three spots below was Colquitt County (Norman Park, Ga.), another 12-0 team. After winning 13 straight games last year but falling in the quarterfinals, the Packers were looking to move into the semifinals this year and prove themselves as the top team in the state.

Standing in the way was Milton (Ga.), which entered the game on a seven-game win streak in which it had outscored opponents 287-51 (an average margin of about 41-7). The Hawks took down the No. 13 team in the nation 39-37 as Luke Nickel, a Miami quarterback commit, passed for 302 yards and scored four touchdowns.

Colquitt County led 25-14 as the first half was winding to a close, but the Milton Hawks scored with less than a minute left to cut the deficit to 25-22. The Hawks then used that momentum to flip the score, going up 36-25 at the end of the third. Trailing by eight points with less than five minutes left, Colquitt County scored a touchdown but failed to convert the two-point attempt. Neither team would score again and the Packers went down.

No. 15 Walton (Marietta, Ga.) vs. No. 23 Carrolton (Ga.): Finally, a matchup in which there was no way a Super 25 team would not win.

Walton managed Carrolton with relative ease, winning 56-35 in a very high-scoring game, flipping last year’s 52-27 loss to the hands of the same Trojans team.

Three-star Wake Forest quarterback commit Jeremy Hecklinski threw for three touchdowns and rushed for a fourth while passing for almost 400 yards, according to MaxPreps. Three-star Memphis running back commit Makari Bodiford scored four touchdowns, two of which came in the second half after the lead had been cut to seven.

Walton and Camden County will now face off in the semifinals. On the flip side is Milton and Grayson (Loganville, Ga.).

Grayson reached after taking down No. 16 Buford 19-14. The defense was stellar, obliterating an offense led by Dylan Raiola, a top-five recruit on the 247Sports Composite. Raiola, committed to Georgia, passed 12-for-17 for just 136 yards while taking six sacks, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Rams forced and recovered three fumbles in the first half alone and held Buford to a negative number of rushing yards.

With that, the fourth-ranked Georgia team went down. The Nos. 10, 13, 16, and 23 spots are open. That shift doesn’t just affect the chase for the Georgia AAAAAAA crown — it shifts the landscape of the national rankings.

More:

Mater Dei redeems regular-season loss to St. John Bosco with championship win

Super 25 scoreboard

Recruiting Superstar: 4-star Athlete with 60 offers names his top 15 schools

The most popular recruit in the entire class of 2024 may be Grayson (Ga.) four-star Athlete Kylan Fox.

One of the most popular recruits in the class of 2024 is Grayson (Ga.) four-star Athlete Kylan Fox.

It’s not unusual for the nation’s top-ranked high school football players to receive offers from a couple dozen Power 5 programs. However, according to On3, Fox has already gotten offers from 60 different schools so far.

That’s a lot of teams to choose from, but Fox is working on narrowing his choices down. Yesterday, Fox shared his top 15 schools on Twitter. The list includes Florida State, Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Tennessee, Ohio State, Miami, Georgia Tech, South Carolina, Auburn, Louisville, Stanford, North Carolina, Cincinnati and Mississippi.

It’s not hard to see why so many programs are interested. Fox (6-foot-4, 208 pounds) is one of the most versatile players in the country, splitting his time at tight end as well as defensive end. 247Sports ranks him in the top 10 at his position and No. 87 overall in his class.

There is no clear favorite to land Fox as of yet, but for now Georgia (17.4%) and Georgia Tech (11.5%) are in the lead, per On3’s prediction model. For what it’s worth, his Twitter likes seem to lean towards Colorado.

More football recruiting stories

19 signees for Coach Prime’s class of 2023

2022’s top spenders, Duce Robinson sets date

Live-Stream High School Sports: NFHS Network

Super 25 High School Football Week 4 recap: Bergen Catholic and Grayson suffer first losses

Here’s a recap of how all of the top 25 teams in the country did in Week 4.

The top team in our Super 25 rankings was idle Friday night, as 5-0 Mater Dei (Calif.) had the week off. Meanwhile, No. 2 St. John Bosco (Calif.) cruised to a 65-point win and third-ranked St. Frances (Md.) held off Dutch Fork (S.C.) in the biggest game of the week, 26-7.

The next three teams on the list (Buford, Central and St. Thomas Aquinas) also came out on top, but No. 7 Bergen Catholic (N.J.) suffered their first loss of the 2022 season, as did our No. 17 team Grayson (Ga.).

Here’s a recap of how all of the top 25 teams in the country did in Week 4.

More high school football stories

Arch Manning’s team suffers their first defeat of 2022 season

Oklahoma high school calls upon two girls to help avoid forfeit

Live-Stream High School Football:

NFHS Network

High school football schedule: Top games of Week 15

Katy vs. North Shore and Mater Dei vs. St. John Bosco are just two of the exciting high school football games on this week’s schedule.

[jwplayer 3999SUJs-BmKM743H]

There are championships abound and playoff games to watch for, and the two most highly-anticipated rematches have rolled around: Mater Dei vs. St. John Bosco in California and Katy vs. North Shore in Texas.

See those and eight other high school football games to keep an eye on this week as the season nears its close.

For many teams, this will be the end of the season.

SUPER 25: National football rankings

Katy receiver Jordan Patrick (13) catches a pass along the sidelines and is tackled by North Shore defensive back Upton Stout (5) (Photo: Joe Buvid, Houston Chronicle Contributor)

MATCHUP

No. 7 Katy (Texas) (12-0)

vs.

No. 13 North Shore (Houston, Texas) (11-1)

When: 11/29, 5 p.m. ET

Tale of the Tape: The North Shore Mustangs started the season at the No. 2 spot in the Super 25. They dropped their first game of the season, a 24-21 loss to Katy. It was revenge from the Tigers, who fell to North Shore in the playoffs last year, a 49-38 game. Now, while this is just the regionals of the six-round Texas playoffs, this could be the best game of the entire gauntlet. If running back Ron Hoff is unable to go for Katy, the Tigers will have to find production from its running back position to counter North Shore’s Zach Evans. Maybe Jalen Davis can pick up where he left off last week – a 30 carry, 219-yard, two-touchdown performance.

[opinary poll=”who-will-win-katy-north-shore” customer=”usatodayhss”]