RINGGOLD, Ga. — The Heritage High School girls lost the battle but won the war Tuesday night as Georgia Region 7-AAAA closed out its regular season.
The Lady Generals (13-10, 8-2) lost at home to Sonoraville (21-4, 8-2) 47-38, which, coupled with Northwest Whitfield's (14-10, 8-2) 53-30 win over Central-Carroll, created a three-way tie for first place. Since each team split two regular season games with the others and the second tiebreaker -- head-to-head record against the regular season champion -- did not come into play, the region tournament No. 1 seed came down to a third tiebreaker, the best road record among region teams.
Heritage went 5-0 away from home, including road wins at Northwest and Sonoraville, to earn the top seed. A coin flip Wednesday between Northwest and Sonoraville will decide the second and third seeds.
The significance is the No. 2 seed will have a first-round bye, while the No. 3 seed will host a first-round game Monday against the No. 6 seed, Cedartown, which is winless on the season.
"I definitely want to win the coin flip, but however it turns out -- whether we are the two or three -- we just want to be playing well," said Sonoraville coach Stephanie Caudell, whose team won its last five games. "You get the automatic state tournament bid if you win the coin flip, but you have to sit for a long time before you play again. I've had to deal with this several times over the years, and it's not ideal, but we will deal with whatever we have to deal with."
A strong last three minutes of the first quarter and a 15-8 advantage in the second quarter proved to be the difference for the Lady Phoenix. Kayleigh Kelley scored all of her 14 points in the first half, including back-to-back 3-pointers to end the first period for a 13-9 Sonoraville lead.
Her 3-pointer with 2:23 left in the first half, which followed a layup from Diana Smith, gave Sonoraville a 24-14 lead, which grew to 28-17 when Ella Kate Walraven scored on consecutive possessions to end the half.
Defenses dominated in the second quarter, with each team scoring six points, but the Lady Generals went on a 10-2 run to start the final period, capped by back-to-back layups from Lauren Mock and Macie Collins, to make it a three-point game with 3:42 remaining.
"Both of us couldn't score very much in the third quarter," Caudell said. "They are big and physical. They went man-to-man on us, something they didn't do the last time we played them, and it caused us problems."
Sonoraville, however, answered with a 10-0 run to secure the win.
Northwest Whitfield's girls earned their regular season co-championship as Kennedy Baker and Sloan Pender scored 16 and 15 points, respectively.
› In Tuesday's other regular season-ending region showdown, North Murray's boys defeated Murray County 70-60 to force a tie atop Region 7-AA with Model.
Judson Petty scored 21 points, 10 coming in the final period, and Skyler Williams added 12 as the Mountaineers (21-2, 10-2) earned a season split with the Indians (10-12, 8-4). Model (18-4, 10-2) defeated Rockmart 59-49 to tie for the top spot.
A coin flip will determine the top two seeds for the upcoming region tournament.
› Each of the other regions, except 7-AAAAA, are set for region tournament play. On the girls' side, Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe (23-1, 14-0) is the 6-AAA champs and will host the region tournament.
Murray County (18-4, 12-0) is the 7-AA girls' champs, with Trion second to Darlington in 7-A (D-I) and Christian Heritage No. 3 behind Mt. Zion in 7-A (D-II).
The Calhoun girls (19-4, 8-1) earned at least a tie for first place in 7-AAAAA with an 85-56 win over Cartersville Tuesday. Calhoun faces Dalton Friday, needing a win or a Hiram (19-4, 7-2) loss to Cartersville to earn the outright No. 1 seed.
› On the boys' side, Central-Carroll is the 7-AAAA champion, followed by Sonoraville. LFO will be the No. 1 seed in the 6-AAA tournament, with Adairsville No. 2 and LaFayette No. 3.
Darlington and Chattooga are the top two seeds in 7-A (D-I), with Greenforest and Christian Heritage the top two in 7-A (D-II).
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com.