By Ed Letsinger, www.Hacksports.com
Special to MaxPreps.com
Tournament Time
The Cincinnati boys’ basketball sectional tournament began this week with two Division III contests on Monday. Reading coasted past SCPA 74-44 and by winning will face three-time defending state champion and No. 2 seed North College Hill in the second round.
NCH, which earned an opening round bye, will begin its quest for an unprecedented fourth-straight state title.
Purcell Marian had an easy time with Williamsburg winning 98-50 and will play the winner of Ripley-Mariemont. The tournament cranks up in earnest over the next several days with Divisions I, II and IV all beginning play.
The girls are through the first week of sectional play with no major surprises at this point.
In Division I, top-seeded Lakota West crushed Seton 81-32 in an opening round game and followed that performance with a 83-33 whipping of Hamilton.
Two-time defending state champion Mount Notre Dame was equally impressive, recording a 83-33 win over Lakota East followed by a 102-41 win over Withrow. No. 1-seed Alter in Division II and DIV top seed Seven Hills cruised to big opening game wins. Georgetown, the top seed in Division III, defeated Mariemont 40-27 in its opening round game.
Moeller Wins Battle Of No. 1 vs. No. 2
Top-ranked Moeller defeated No. 2 St. Xavier 41-32 in a Greater Catholic League South Division battle between the area’s top two ranked teams on Friday night at St. Xavier.
With the win, the Crusaders (19-1, 14-0 GCL) finish with their best regular season record in school history and become the first GCL South school to finish unbeaten in league play since the 1993-94 Crusaders squad.
St. Xavier’s only two losses this year are to Moeller. The Bombers (18-2, 12-2) also lost to Moeller in last year’s Ohio Division I state championship game and the two could potentially see each other again in the finals this year as Moeller has elected to play through the Columbus bracket with St. X staying in Cincinnati.
Moeller is ranked No. 1 in the state in the Associated Press and MaxPreps.com polls and is ranked ninth in the country by USA Today. Their one loss is to St. Benedict’s Prep (N.J.), ranked No. 3 in the country by USA Today.
Perusing The Polls, Part III
At the midpoint of the regular season I compared the preseason Cincinnati coaches’ poll against their actual weekly poll. I said I would follow up at regular season’s end to see how things ultimately shook out and last week addressed the girls’ rankings. With the completion of the boys’ regular season this past weekend, now it’s time to take a look at how they fared.
In the large-school division Oak Hills and Fairfield started out the season unranked but finished Nos. 6 and 7, respectively. Dropping out of the poll is preseason No. 9 Mason. St. Xavier surrendered its No. 1 preseason ranking to Moeller and dropped to No. 2.
Among the smaller-division schools, Seven Hills (19-1) made the biggest move. The Stingers, winners of 19 straight games, started the year unranked and climbed to No. 2. Preseason No. 1 North College Hill dropped to No. 4, replaced by preseason No. 2 Taft. Preseason No. 3 Roger Bacon moved backward and dropped to ninth as did No. 4 Wyoming, which dropped to No. 7.
News & Notes
* Lakota West senior forward and University of Tennessee basketball recruit Amber Gray was nominated for the McDonald’s All-America team over the weekend.
* Deer Park senior forward Ori Harrison became the school’s all-time leading scorer in boys’ basketball after scoring 22 points in a 56-46 win over Mariemont on Friday night.
The previous record had stood since 1989.
* Anemic scoring plagued more than one Cincinnati team this past Friday night. La Salle managed just 18 points in a very lopsided 71-18 loss to Elder in a Greater Catholic League South Division finale. The Lancers scored in single digits all four quarters and shot just 16 percent for the game. Lakota East and West concluded round two of their annual rivalry with a less-than-stellar performance. West led 5-3 after the first quarter and the game was tied 12-12 at halftime with both teams combining to shoot just 20 percent. The Firebirds eventually went on to win the game 41-33.
* Ursuline Academy won its 12th straight sectional swimming title over the weekend behind the performance of University of North Carolina recruit Sarah Tanner. Tanner, the defending Ohio Division I state champion in the 200 individual medley, took first in the 100-yard butterfly and 200 IM and was part of the Lions winning 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams.
