Dasher — Crisp Academy’s boys and Fullington Academy’s girls  punched their tickets to the state tournament Tuesday although both still have a couple of Region 3-A GISA stops to make before they get there.

Coach Jodie Hays’  Wildcats secured their berth by defeating Highland Christian’s Eagles 49-41. Coach Mike Cason’s Lady Trojans earned their slot by downing Randolph Southern 48-44.

Before either of them make the trip to ABAC next week for the first round of state, they must return here for today’s region semifinals where both face teams representing host Georgia Christian School. The feminine fray tips off at 4 p.m. and the masculine match at 8:30.

In between those two contests, Crisp Academy’s Lady Wildcats and Fullington’s Trojans, who were already assured of trips to state by virtue of their No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, also will be in action.

The former faces Highland, a first-round winner over Grace Christian, at 7 p.m. and the latter takes on Grace Christian, a first-round victor over Randolph Southern at 5:30.

Today’s losers vie in Friday’s consolation games set for 4 (girls) and 5:30 while the winners square off in title games at 7 (girls) and 8:30.

Wildcats 49, Eagles 41

Big offensive nights by Hunter Chambers and Jake Smith coupled with the defensive clamps the ’Cats put on Highland’s top two players enabled Crisp to register its ninth win in 22 overall starts this season.

Chambers turned in a career-high 28 points and Smith managed exactly half that total while combining for all but seven of the points managed by the Wildcats who led 11-8 after one quarter, trailed 24-21 and 33-32 at the next two period breaks and then won the decisive last stanza 17-8.

And while bouncing to a neutral site win over a Highland team it had beaten at home 50-49 and lost to 54-51 on the road, Crisp held Eagles Tucker Bruce and Jaylen Hiller to a paltry 5 and 14 points, respectively.

“With Highland focusing its defense on stopping Jordan (Howard, who went scoreless), Jake and Hunter really came up big for us with their scoring,” a beaming Hays said in reflecting upon a battle that saw his team prevail in a duel that went back and forth most all night.

“Equally as big was the job we did against Bruce, who had 19- and 23-point nights against us in our regular season meetings, and Hiller, who had 15- and 11-point performances in our previous clashes.

“We came out concentrating on those two so much, though, that in taking ((Dusty) Thomas for granted he made us pay by coming through with 20 points to keep them in it.

“Our basic game plan was to try to get them into a half-court trap situation so that we could take advantage of their weak guard play. We did force them into 30 turnovers but didn’t take advantage of as much as we should have as we missed a lot of easy shots in transition.”

Score by Quarters

Crisp Academy 11-10-11-17 — 49

Highland 8-16-9-8 — 41

Scoring

Crisp Academy (49) — Hunter Chambers 28, Jake Smith 14, Banks Folsom 2, Jeff McKinney 2, Chip Posey 3, Jordan Howard, Cullen Brooks, Chris McGee.

Team totals: field goals 19; free throws 10 of 21 (47.6%); fouls 15; 3-pointers — Smith 1; fouled out — Posey.

Highland Christian (41) — Julius King 2, Tucker Bruce 5, Dusty Thomas 20, Jaylen Hiller 14, Wesley Robinson, Casey Conn.

Team totals: field goals 16; free throws 5 of 13 (38.5%); fouls 16; 3-pointers — Thomas 4; fouled out — Thomas.

Lady Trojans 48, Lady Pats 44

Going up against an opponent they had already faced three times, the Lady Trojans ultimately chalked up a third win but not without a lot of difficulty in doing so.

Having sandwiched triumphs of 57-54 in the Terrell Tip-Off Tourney and  75-53 at home around a 51-48 road loss to the Lady Patriots, Fullington used a strong second half performance as the springboard to victory.

Down 26-19 at intermission, the Lady Trojans got an eight-point effort from Rachel McCleskey during their 20-point third period eruption that gave them a 39-30 edge heading into the final turn.

Eighth grader Hannah Clemons also made a key contribution to Fullington’s victory, scoring nine points and grabbing four rebounds all in the decisive second half of play.

“It was a good, close game all the way,” Cason said after watching his team improve its record to 7-15. “Their press really gave us a lot of trouble in the first half when we committed 15 of our 21 turnovers but by handling it much better the last two periods we were able to come out on top.”

McCleskey wound up with 18 points and Darrian Bailey finished with 10 for the winners who also benefited from Lex van Assendelft’s 11-rebound, five-point performance.

Randolph Southern, which likely played its last basketball game ever since the school is closing its doors at the end of this school term, got 18 points from Gabi Jackson and 10 from Parker Rigsby.

Score by Quarters

Fullington Academy 10-9-20-9 — 48

Randolph Southern 7-19-4-14 — 44

Scoring

Fullington Academy (48) — Darrian Bailey 10, Hannah Clemons 9, Lena van Assendelft, Rachel McCleskey 18, Leah Thompson, Madison Warbington 6, Lex van Assendelft 5, Alyssa Edwards.

Team totals: field goals 15; free throws 17 of 32 (53.1%); fouls 15; 3-pointers — McCleskey 1; fouled out — McCleskey.

Randolph Southern (44) — Madison Langford 2, Gabi Jackson 18, Parker Rigsby 10, Alaina McCook 8, Dana McCarter 6, Megan Bonner.

Team totals: field goals 18; free throws 8 of 11 (72.7%); fouls 23; 3-pointers — none; fouled out — McCook.