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| State tournament pairings give 10th a reason to smile |
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By Dan Manley
Advocate Sports Editor
When they drew the bills out of the machine Friday and set the pairings for the Kentucky State High School state tournaments in March, coaches around the 10th Region should have been feeling pretty good.
Of course, only one boys team and one girls team from the 10th Region will have a reason to be concerned with the bracket when the tournaments actually arrive, but everyone in the region should feel good about the chances of the representatives from the 10th Region have of making a good showing.
In the boy’s bracket, where Clark County and Mason County are the solid 1-2 choices in the 10th, the first round opponent in the state tournament will be the Fifth Region winner, probably Campbellsville or North Hardin.
Having seen both of those teams play recently, I certainly like Clark County or Mason County’s, or even the upset surprise team of advancing on to the second round.
Up next would be the winner between the Sixth Region and the 14th Region, perhaps Iroquois, Pleasure Ridge Park, Perry Central or Knott Central.
I think Clark County would be a solid favorite against any of those teams.
In the semifinal round, the likely opponent would be Shelby Valley. There’s a state tournament semifinal round game that would be worth watching—Clark County and Shelby Valley.
In the top half of the boys’ bracket, take your pick of teams like Christian County, Covington Holmes, Ballard, Trinity, Scott County, Lexington Catholic and on and on.
The trick for many of those teams will be getting there. That may be tougher for the Seventh and 11th Region teams than advancing to Saturday once you are in the Sweet 16.
If I were picking today, I’d take Holmes and Trinity in the semifinals.
Meanwhile, in the girls’ bracket, the 10th Region winner, which has been Montgomery County for the last five years, gets paired up with the Third Region champion in the opening round, playing in the lower bracket.
That team appears to be a tossup between Daviess County and Owensboro Catholic.
That will be a very winnable game for the 10th Region champion. Bracket County took Owensboro Catholic to the wire in last week’s All “A” Classic.
In the second round, the likely opponent will be Murray or Calloway County out of the First and Lincoln County and Rockcastle County out of the 12th. Those are good teams, but Montgomery County played close to Lincoln County earlier in the year and there’s no reason to think the 10th Region won’t be competitive against those teams.
In the semifinal round, try Newport Central Catholic, Dunbar or Madison Central as the likely foes.
Montgomery County had a very competitive game with Newport Central Catholic, losing to the Thorobreds in the Lexington Catholic Holiday Tournament.
In the other bracket, Manual, Mercy, Marion County, Henderson County, Bowling Green and Elizabethtown look like some of the top contenders.
The girls’ Sweet 16 is held first again this year, at Diddle Arena in Bowling Green March 10-13 with the boy’s Sweet 16 the following week (March 17-20) at Rupp Arena in Lexington.
Tickets are available through the KHSAA ticket office.
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