Basketball playoffs under way

As the 2006-07 basketball season enters its final stretch, the subregion seedings remain undecided. Tuesday's games did help clear the picture a little, but it wasn't the type of outlook that Greenbrier boys coach Casey Dees and Evans coach Kevin Kenny were hoping to see.

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Greenbrier lost 47-42 to Statesboro in a game that sent the Wolfpack to 3-3 in subregion play and fourth place in the subregion standings. Evans also fell to 3-3 in the subregion with a 66-52 loss at the Academy of Richmond County.

Thanks to two Evans wins over the Wolfpack earlier this year, the Knights own the tie breaker over Greenbrier and therefore entered the weekend at third place in the subregion.

It's still a far cry from where Kenny hoped his team would be.

"We still have a chance to get a higher seed, but it's hard. We've had a couple of games that could have gone either way," he said.

In the past month of subregion play, the Knights have experienced an overtime loss, a double-overtime win, a buzzer-beating win in regulation and a buzzer-beating loss in regulation.

In the same month, Greenbrier survived two-point and four-point wins, a loss at the buzzer, a double-overtime loss and a five-point loss.

The near-misses meant more than simple region losses. This season's top boys basketball team will earn the right to play host to the Region 3-AAAA Tournament. Entering this weekend's play, Richmond Academy had the best chance at home-court advantage with a 6-1 sub-region record.

"If it's around here, that's fine, but we just don't want it to be in Statesboro because then we have to travel," Richmond Academy coach Steve Nobles said. "If it's here, we get to stay home and play in our house. I think our players are going to be more comfortable here."

So are the fans. Richmond Academy's gym, off Walton Way near downtown, holds a little more than 2,100 fans, Nobles said. That's almost the total of the seating at Greenbrier's gym (1,250 capacity) and Evans (1,100).

The final subregion standings will be determined after this week's final Region 3B-AAAA games, which include Lakeside at Greenbrier on Wednesday, Evans at Lakeside on Friday and Richmond Academy at Statesboro on Friday.