The girls Sectional tournament draw took place on Sunday evening, the first mark that basketball season has flown by.
After one more week of girls regular season games, it gets serious in win or go home fashion. Last season, some of the top teams in the state were from Northeast Indiana, but only Fairfield went on to represent as a state champion.
On the road to Gainbridge Fieldhouse, you have to have some luck on your side with Indiana’s blind draw for the opening round of the postseason.
With that said, who won their particular draw on Sunday? And perhaps more importantly, who didn’t fare so well?
WINNER: FREMONT
This is a no brainer for the Eagles. Their stellar and maybe a year earlier than expected success leads them into the All-NECC Class 2A Sectional 35 at Eastside. This Sectional features Eastside and Central Noble as two of the best teams in the conference and therefore this bracket.
Fremont avoids the side of the bracket with those two teams however, getting a bye to Friday’s championship where they will play the winner of Churubusco and Westview, teams that Fremont beat by six and eight points in the regular season. So the Eagles have to win just one game to make a Sectional final and then (and only then) will they have to face one of the Sectional powers.
LOSERS: BLUFFTON, MANCHESTER AND BISHOP LUERS
Three of the best teams in this Sectional, maybe the top three overall are on the same side of the bracket. Here is your first “we need to seed this” plea of the season.
Now personally, I don’t know how I would seed it, but the vaunted Sagarin Ratings say Luers as one, Bluffton at two and Manchester at four behind Whitko. And the Wildcats kind of win this by factor of these three teams losing. Whitko gets a bye and the winner of Adams Central and South Adams, so other than having to possibly face one of the area’s best scorers in South Adams’ Macy Pries, Whitko wins.
Manchester’s Brooklyn Buzzard and Bishop Luers’ Addie Shank are two of the best players in Northeast Indiana this season and having them on the same side with the ultra-widespread offense of Bluffton is criminal in this instance. Despite Whitko’s really strong season, including a win over Manchester, conventional wisdom says that the winner of this Sectional could come from the three of these teams and they will have to cannibalize each there to even get to Saturday night.
WINNERS: HOMESTEAD AND COLUMBIA CITY
After last year’s dramatic ending to their Sectional meeting, the fact that we won’t get Homestead and Columbia City until a possible Class 4A Sectional title game is exceptional.
Their game last season, which came down to Myah Epps’ ice-in-her-veins free throws, has an argument as being the best game in all of Northeast Indiana on the girls side during the 2022-2023 season and was certainly the best postseason game.
So many of those characters are back this season including Epps, so you know she’d like to make magic happen twice. Expect another epic game “should” they get to each other again.
Columbia City certainly has the tougher draw to get there as Wayne can get really hot shooting the ball and Huntington North is a bit of an enigma while Homestead will just have to deal with the winner of South Side and New Haven, who have a combined seven wins as of press time.
WINNER: JAY COUNTY
After the exceptional season that Jay County has had, you’d want to see them far from Hamilton Heights. That works out great as the 19-2 Patriots wouldn’t get the host Hamilton Heights (16-5) until a title game on Saturday.
Jay County is one of those great stories from the area and this Sectional got seeded this in Jay County’s favor as Frankton, on the other side of the bracket, is really good too. When the host team is as good as Hamilton Heights is, you don’t want to face them and Frankton will have to deal with that while Jay County will only see one of them.
A lot of time and maturity has happened for the Patriots since they played Hamilton Heights on November 11 in just their second game of the season. That game too was at Hamilton Heights so at least Jay County has some experience playing there, but Sectional Saturday is going to have a different feeling than an early November game. It will be a fun game if we get it, its just a good thing it can wait until Saturday if it does happen.
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