By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          The Centennial Center in Milledgeville is home to Bobcats, but there may be a whole lot of Raiders in the building Friday.

          Northeast’s boys and girls will call Georgia College’s home its own for several hours Friday afternoon as they play in back to back GHSA Class AA semifinal games, only about 35 miles from their own Upper River Road home.

          Baldwin’s girls will also be playing their Class 4A semifinal game in Central Georgia, at Fort Valley State at 2 p.m.

Semifinals

🏀 🏀 🏀Girls🏀 🏀 🏀

Class 5A
At Fort Valley State
Saturday
2 p.m.: Forest Park, 21-6, R3/2, vs New Manchester, 19-9, R6/2
6 p.m.: Warner Robins, 25-5, R1/1, vs. Woodward Academy, 27-2,  R3/1
Championship: March 10, 5:30 p.m.
Class 4A
At Fort Valley State
Friday
2 p.m.: Baldwin, 26-2, R4/1, vs. Luella, 26-3,  R5/1
6 p.m.: Marist, 26-3, R6/1, vs. Pickens, R7/2
Championship: March 9, 5 p.m.
Class AA
Friday
2 p.m.: Elbert County, 26-4, R8/2, vs. Josey, 24-5, R4/1
6 p.m.: Northeast, 23-6, R3/1, vs. Rabun County, 23-5, R8/1
Class A Public
At Valdosta State
Saturday
2 p.m.: Hancock Central, 17-3, R7/1, vs. Commerce, R8/2, 15-14, R8/2
6 p.m.: Taylor County, 23-4, R5/2, vs. Lake Oconee, 24-1, R8/1
Championship: March 9, 1 p.m.

🏀 🏀 🏀 Boys 🏀 🏀 🏀

Class AA
At Georgia College
Friday
4 p.m.: Northeast, R3/2, vs. Westside-Augusta, 26-3, R4/1
8 p.m.: Butler, 21-6, R4/2, vs. Woodville-Tompkins, R2/2
Championship: March 10, 3 p.m.
Class A Private
Saturday
Buford City Arena
4 p.m.: FPD, 23-3, R1/1 vs. Kings Ridge Christian, 27-4, R6/1
4 p.m (Friday): Greenforest, 27-4, R2/1, vs. Heritage, 23-7, R4/1
Championship: March 12, 1 p.m.

          All hope for one more game close to home when the state championships tip off next week at the Macon Coliseum.

          Kevin Grooms is making his coaching career last as long as possible.

          The Northeast boys basketball head coaching job will become official vacant whenever the season ends, Groom moving to his duties as Bibb County athletics director full-time.

          The Raiders are in the state semifinals for the first time in about 40 years – as per the Georgia High School Basketball Project website, facing Westside-Augusta at Georgia College at 4 p.m. on Friday in a Class AA semifinal.

          Northeast’s girls play right after the boys, taking on No. 2/1 Rabun County.

          Northeast’s boys are 21-9 and on a three-game winning streak, losing 64-62 to Washington County in the region tournament championship, a week after the Raiders took a 68-66 double-overtime win in Sandersville.

          The Raiders are tested, battling stellar Washington County part of a tough region, and taking on bigger programs like Warner Robins, Locust Grove, Veterans, and Upson-Lee, among others.

          Travion Solomon’s 17.6 points top a fairly balanced Northeast attack, with four players getting at least 8.8 points a game. Zion Odoms gets 9.0 rebounds a game.

          The 26-3 Patriots are on a nine-game winning streak, and have knocked off Central Georgia teams Peach County (twice), Jones County, Putnam County (three times) along the way. Their last loss was 64-63 to Putnam County on Feb. 4.

          The trio of Khalon Hudson, Jalexs Ewing, and Amauri Tillman teams for 49.5 points a game, and 15.4 rebounds.

          Northeast’s girls have been fairly dominant in the postseason, winning in region and state play by 14, 18, 48, 26, and 33. The last loss was on Jan. 28, 52-50 to Dodge County. The closest game since then was the 72-58 win over Lamar County to open the region tournament.

          Jakia Little sparks Northeast with 22.4 points and – impressive at 5-6 – 6.4 rebounds a game, plus a team-high 3.9 steals. Laniya Richardson adds 15.4 points, but the Raiders drop off to 8.1 points after that, and they get only 10 assists a game, but nearly 17 steals.

          The Wildcats’ postseason wins have come by 19, seven, 31,10, and 34. Their last loss was to Elbert County, another semifinalist, by 51-45 on Feb. 8.

          They have seven seniors, led by wing Gracie Dietz, one of several getting around double figures.

          Luella ended the regular season ranked first in both Sandy’s Spiel and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution polls, while Baldwin was fourth in both.

          Each team is avenging last season’s playoffs, when they were upended in the first round, region champs going home early.

          Luella lost 51-50 to Cedar Shoals, which reached the quarterfinals. Baldwin fell 40-34 to Bainbridge, knocked out a game later by Troup.

          They have a little familiarity with each other, having met way back on Nov. 16 in Milledgeville. Luella took that game 55-54.

          Baldwin’s only other loss this season was to Carver-Columbus, 71-67 at the end of December.

          Arianna Dyson gets nearly a double-double for Luella, with 13.5 points and nine rebounds. Evangelia Davlakou averages 13.6 points and 4.1 assists.

          Baldwin, which has only one senior on the roster, is balanced with four players averaging between 9.1 and 13 points a game: Madison Ruff, Tamia Smith, Janaye Walker, and Kassidy Neal. Walker leads with 9.1 rebounds, with a 19-rebound game in the postseason, and Ruff with four steals a game.

          Luella’s last losing season was back in 2010-11. The Lions have cracked 20 wins five straight seasons.

          Baldwin won three straight titles in the 1980s and was a perennial contender about two decades ago, but is in its first semifinals since 2009. The Bravettes haven’t been below .500 since 2014-15.

          Kizzy Walker is 107-23 in her fifth season at Baldwin.