Cedar Grove, Sandy Creek to meet in title game
Cedar Grove High School’s boys’ basketball team will play for the Georgia High School Association Boys’ Basketball 3A State Championship on March 10 at 3 p.m. in the Macon Centreplex (200 Coliseum Drive, Macon).
The game will be the third meeting this season between Cedar Grove and its state title opponent Sandy Creek. The game is also a rematch of the 2022 GHSA 3A Football State Championship, which Cedar Grove lost on a controversial missed call.
The Saints are 0-3 against Sandy Creek so far this season. However, the Saints defeated Douglass by 16 points in the playoffs after losing to Douglass in one of the regular season matchups.
The Saints marched to Macon with wins over Lafayette (73-53), Monroe Area (62-55), Long County (94-91 in two overtimes) and Douglass (61-45) to reach the title game.
Cedar Grove is averaging 72.5 points per game while allowing 61.0 points per game along the way.
Freshman Emmanuel Green leads the Saints in scoring with 15.6 points per game in the regular season followed by senior Jaylen Adside (14.5), senior Darius Reynolds (13.7) and sophomore EJ Colson (12.0). Reynolds leads in rebounding with 10.7 per game and Green is pulling down 8.3 rebounds per contest. Adside is averaging 4.4 assists per game and Colson is averaging 1.4 steals.
Green and Reynolds were All-Region 5-3A picks this season. Colson also helped lead the Saints to back-to-back appearances in GHSA state title football games at Center Parc Stadium in Atlanta.
Sandy Creek defeated Ringgold (100-57), Wesleyan (68-22), top ranked Johnson-Savannah 56-50, and two-time defending state champion Cross Creek 54-35 to earn a trip to the title game.
Region 5-3A Player of the Year Micah Smith leads the way for Sandy Creek along with First Team All-Region selections Vic Newsom and Amari Brown.
This is the Saints second state title game appearance and the first since 1997 when they defeated Greene-Taliaferro 88-65 to claim the Class 2A championship. Sandy Creek last played for a state championship in 2021.
A win would give DeKalb County School District (DCSD) its first basketball state championship since 2016 when Miller Grove boys’ team and Southwest DeKalb girls’ team won state titles.
Marist School, Drew Charter, and Greenforest McCallep have won titles since 2016 as non-DCSD schools from DeKalb.
Cedar Grove is the only team from DeKalb in a 2023 GHSA traditional basketball state championship game.
