With Saturday’s 48-40 road victory over Columbus, the Grangers finished the regular season with five straight wins, allowing them to secure the number two seed for the Region 5-AAAA tournament that begins this week.
The Grangers (19-6 overall, 10-4 in region play) earned a bye into the tournament semifinals, and they’ll play on Friday at 6 p.m.
LaGrange has already secured one of the region’s four invitations to the state tournament.
Getting the number two seed is big because of the bye.
If the Grangers had finished third or lower, they would have needed to win a game to reach the semifinals, and that’s a tough task in a region this deep.
“I’d hate to be going into a play-in game right now, because anybody can beat anybody,” LaGrange head coach Mike Pauley said.
The Blue Devils hung tough on Saturday, but they only managed 40 points against the Grangers’ stingy defense.
“It was a tight game all the way down the stretch,” Pauley said. “Columbus played us well.”
LaGrange’s girls’ team, meanwhile, lost to Columbus 68-53 in its regular-season finale on Saturday.
The Lady Grangers (19-6, 9-5) will be the fourth seed in the region tournament, and they’ll play at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at Columbus High against either Carrollton or Shaw.
LaGrange needs to win that game to advance to the semifinals and earn a state bid.
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