By Ed Letsinger/Hacksports.com
Special to MaxPreps.com
The road to March Madness begins Monday for Southwest Ohio girls’ basketball as five games in three different divisions highlight play in the sectional tournament.
Bethel-Tate plays Norwood in a Division II sectional at Mason, followed by Clermont Northeastern vs. Finneytown. No. 5 Bethel-Tate is the highest-seeded team playing today in DII. The Division III sectional features a pair of top-10 seeded games, with No. 8 Purcell Marian taking on No. 4 Madeira and No. 5 Reading playing No. 6 Mariemont in a battle between two Cincinnati Hills League rivals. Sixth-seeded Lockland will have its hands full in a Division IV sectional at Monroe as the Wildcats take on No. 2 seed Southeastern.
Division I tournament play begins tomorrow at three different sites, with No. 4 Winton Woods (19-1) the highest seed in action. The Warriors, which just wrapped up an unbeaten season in the Fort Ancient Valley Conference, take on McAuley in a Lakota East sectional.
Battle of Titans Looming Large
With 19 games down and one to go, Moeller and St. Xavier have saved the best for last. In clearly the top game of the year in Cincinnati and arguably all of Ohio, Moeller travels to St. Xavier Friday, setting up a colossal season-ending showdown.
The Crusaders (18-1, 13-0 GCL) and Bombers (18-1, 12-1 GCL) come into the game ranked Nos. 1-2 locally in the coaches’ poll and Nos. 1-3 in Ohio by MaxPreps.com. Moeller is ranked No. 9 in the country by USA Today.
The two met back on Dec. 14, with Moeller dealing St. Xavier its lone loss of the season, 63-54, on the Crusaders’ home court.
Moeller remains unbeaten against local competition, with its lone loss coming to St. Benedict’s Prep (N.J.), ranked No. 3 in the country by USA Today.
Perusing the Polls, Part II
At the midpoint of the regular season, I compared the preseason Cincinnati coaches’ poll against their actual weekly poll. At the time it was holding up pretty well, with only a couple of teams sliding in and out of the top 10 in both divisions. I said I would follow up at regular season’s end to see how things ultimately shook out so here we go on the girls’ side.
In the large-school division, only No. 10 Loveland started out the year unranked. The Tigers replaced St. Ursula, which began at No. 7 but slipped out of the top 10. Lakota West ended up No. 1, bumping preseason favorite Mount Notre Dame, which didn’t fall far, ending at No. 2.
There was more of a noticeable shake-up among the smaller-division schools. Wyoming finished No. 8 and Summit Country Day ninth after being unranked in the preseason. Falling out of the top 10 were preseason No. 4 Mariemont and No. 8 Batavia. Unbeaten Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy finished in the top spot after starting the year at No. 3, bumping out No. 2 Badin. McNicholas took the biggest plunge, falling from second to No. 10.
Preseason polls can be dicey sometimes but overall it looks like the coaches did pretty well on their prognostications. We’ll check out the boys’ poll next week at the conclusion of their regular season.
News & Notes
Deer Park won more than just a game on Saturday when it defeated Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy, 62-58, in double overtime in a Cincinnati Hills League contest. The win gave the Wildcats their first league title in basketball in 39 years, dating back to when they were competing in the now-defunct Eastern Hills League. It was marked the first boys’ varsity sport to win any CHL title since 1985, the year the league was formed.
The Ohio High School Athletic Association announced it will begin a new tradition at the girls’ and boys’ state basketball tournaments this year with the addition of the “Hoop FanFest.” Developed in conjunction with C&S Sports Enterprises, LLC, the Hoop FanFest is an interactive basketball extravaganza that will highlight the past, present and future of Ohio high school basketball and allow for a hands-on experience for fans of all ages.
Clermont Northeastern coach Jerry Doerger is one of Cincinnati’s all-time leaders in career wins with 500-plus and counting. Now in his fifth season at CNE, he just added another first to his list of accomplishments by leading the Rockets to their first Southern Buckeye Conference title under his reign.
Ed Letsinger is the editor of Hacksports.com.
