Clayton News Daily

By Doug Gorman

Clayton County is loaded with basketball talent this season?in both boys and girls competition.

That might explain why the county is well represented in both the boys and girls gabasketball.net Top-15 coaches' poll.

In the Class AAAAA girls' poll, Jonesboro, which eventually pulled away to beat Mt. Zion last Friday night, remains unbeaten and is ranked No. 5 in the latest Gabasketball.net coaches' poll.

Jonesboro, which beat Westside Macon 62-46 Tuesday night, faces a tough challenge the rest of the season after losing 6-6 inside specialist Jasmine Duffey to a detached retina.

Riverdale is ranked 10th in the latest poll. The Lady Raiders were 5-1 at the time the poll was released

Saturday afternoon, Riverdale beat rival North Clayton 58-51 behind Dominique Philpots 30 points.

A year ago, Riverdale made it to the Class AAAAA Final Four before losing to Parkview in the semifinals of the Class AAAAA tournament.

Three boys teams from the Southern Crescent are ranked among the state's 15 best Class AAAAA teams.

Jonesboro, which finished as the Class AAAAA runner up last year, was stunned on Friday night by Mt. Zion to drop to 3-1.

The Cardinals got back on track and showed they still belong in the ranking with a 58-42 win against Westside Tuesday.

Lovejoy is right behind Jonesboro in the rankings coming in at the No. 9 spot.

The Wildcats recently welcomed several football players back to the team.

Stockbridge, from across the line in Henry County comes into the poll in the 11th position. Friday night the Tigers used a balanced scoring attack to beat Morrow 82-66.

Four players scored in double figures for the Tigers with Sam King, Markel Humphrey and Calvin Newsome scoring 16 each. Derrick McFarlin added 15.