The four regional championship games will be played either tomorrow or Saturday, but we now know the 8 teams who are State bound. Which two will make it to Richmond, where ultimately only one team will cut down the nets. For the record, I correctly picked 5 of the 8 teams listed when I did my regional picks. Middlesex, Twin Springs and Honaker proved me wrong, although I did have all three in the regional semifinals.
Region A: Lancaster and Middlesex. Middlesex has two losses on the season. Both were to Lancaster, by 51 and 32 points respectively. But both of those games were played over 2 months ago. Lancaster comes in undefeated and have been on a mission since their stunning loss in last year's state semifinals.
Region B: Franklin and Altavista. Altavista is a regular to the state tournament, finishing as runner up two years ago and losing to Westmoreland in the quarters last year. Franklin hasn't played at the state level recently, but this year's team is special. Length all over the floor and their defense leads them.
Region C: George Wythe and Auburn. This will be the 5th meeting between these two teams this season. GW has won three of those, but needed a buzzer beater to win last week's game. Auburn is the defending state champs and have a huge nucleus of that team back.
Region D: Twin Springs and Honaker. TS was the team that many pegged as the Region D favorite at the beginning of the season after returning the entire team that made it to the final four last year. They had a few more hiccups than most expected yet here they are back again. Honaker is a team that started slow this year, but finished strong. But despite winning their district, not many people, myself included thought they'd make it to the state tournament. But that's why they play the games and this team is playing exceptionally well right now and deserve to be here.
I'll do my state tournament predictions either this weekend or early next week, once the matchups are official for the state tournament.
Region A: Lancaster and Middlesex. Middlesex has two losses on the season. Both were to Lancaster, by 51 and 32 points respectively. But both of those games were played over 2 months ago. Lancaster comes in undefeated and have been on a mission since their stunning loss in last year's state semifinals.
Region B: Franklin and Altavista. Altavista is a regular to the state tournament, finishing as runner up two years ago and losing to Westmoreland in the quarters last year. Franklin hasn't played at the state level recently, but this year's team is special. Length all over the floor and their defense leads them.
Region C: George Wythe and Auburn. This will be the 5th meeting between these two teams this season. GW has won three of those, but needed a buzzer beater to win last week's game. Auburn is the defending state champs and have a huge nucleus of that team back.
Region D: Twin Springs and Honaker. TS was the team that many pegged as the Region D favorite at the beginning of the season after returning the entire team that made it to the final four last year. They had a few more hiccups than most expected yet here they are back again. Honaker is a team that started slow this year, but finished strong. But despite winning their district, not many people, myself included thought they'd make it to the state tournament. But that's why they play the games and this team is playing exceptionally well right now and deserve to be here.
I'll do my state tournament predictions either this weekend or early next week, once the matchups are official for the state tournament.
