Hardwood hopes

Girls regionals, boys districts are featured

STAFF REPORT

Thirteen boys teams and three girls squads remain alive as the state basketball tournaments continue this week.

The girls teams — Canfield High in Division II, United in Div. III and Lowellville in Div. IV — enter regional semifinal play, starting Tuesday night.

The boys teams begin district tournament action, starting tonight.

Canfield, which played perhaps the most difficult out of conference schedule among area schools, finished with a modest 12-8 regular-season record.

But the Cardinals swept through four games at the Austintown sectional-district, winning by an average margin of 22 points.

Canfield secured its second consecutive regional berth with a 53-45 win over All-American Conference rival Salem on Saturday.

The Cardinals will play Northeastern Buckeye Conference champion Canton South (23-1) on Tuesday night at Barberton High School. South was ranked No. 9 in the final Associated Press poll.

Also in the regional is Hathaway Brown, which played in the state championship last year, losing to Kettering Alter.

Hathaway Brown, which defeated Canfield, 45-41, in the regional final last year, is paired with Rocky River in Tuesday’s other semifinal.

Hathaway Brown defeated the Cardinals, 60-51, in a regular season game on Jan 24.

Canton South’s only loss came at West Branch, 44-40, on Feb. 5. Six days later Canfield beat West Branch 55-44.

In Div. IV, Lowellville (20-4) has a roster featuring just one senior starter, Chelsea Marrie, but the Rockets went unbeaten in the Inter Tri-County League Tier Two season and followed that up with three wins over conference rivals Jackson-Milton, Lowellville and McDonald, and Warren JFK of the Steel Valley Conference, in the sectional-district at Hubbard High School.

Lowellville defeated McDonald, 64-47, in the championship game on Saturday, but has a difficult assignment on Wednesday at Perry High School in Massillon.

The Rockets will face Berlin Hiland (23-1), ranked No. 2 in the final AP poll. Hiland has won three of the last four Div. IV state championships.

United is 22-1, with its only loss to ITCL Tier One rival Lisbon, but the Golden Eagles avenged that setback later in the regular season and won the rubber match, 60-39, in the district semifinal at Mineral Ridge High School.

The Golden Eagles advanced to the regional tournament at Cuyahoga Falls High School on Wednesday with a 45-40 win over Ursuline in the championship game on Saturday.

United’s road will be the most challenging of any area school. First, the Golden Eagles are paired with unbeaten Smithville (24-0) of the Wayne County Athletic League and the No. 3-ranked team in the final AP poll.

In the other half of the bracket is No. 2-ranked and also unbeaten (24-0) South Euclid Regina.

The boys district tournaments get underway tonight with semifinal games at Howland (Div. III) and Struthers (Div. IV).

There are some interesting matchups, including the Poland-Hubbard game in Div. II at Boardman on Tuesday. Poland is the No. 2 seed in the tournament, but lost to Hubbard 81-78 on Jan. 9.

In fact, all of the teams who were voted the top seed at the tournament draws are still alive, including Warren Harding in the Div. I tournament at Warrensville Heights; Campbell in the Div. III event at Salem; Newton Falls in the Div. III tournament at Howland; McDonald in the Div. IV meet at Struthers, and Warren JFK in the Div. IV tournament at Warren Harding.

Two teams have sprung some upsets to get into the bracket of the last 64 teams left in the state — Cardinal Mooney, which finished 8-12 in the regular season, in Div. II, and Bristol (6-14) in Div. IV. The Panthers face five-time defending district champion Windham on Tuesday at Warren Harding, while the Cardinals will face No. 1 seed Streetsboro at Boadman on Wednesday.