District Tournament Previews: 14th Region
The postseason is finally upon us and the Road to Rupp Arena starts this week. The amount of schools in the postseason will be cut down to 128 once the district rounds are complete. Only district champions and runners-up move on to regional tournaments and there are sure to be several upsets this week. As we continue with our postseason previews, we move to the Fourteenth region where Knott County Central is expected to be the favorite to get to Rupp Arena. Here’s a district by district breakdown of the match-ups:
53rd District (Games played at Letcher County Central):
Both semifinal games take part on Tuesday night. The first semifinal is Knott County Central taking on June Buchanan. Knott has absolutely dominated June Buchanan and that isn’t going to change this week.
The second semifinal is between Cordia and Letcher County Central. Cordia has already soundly defeated Letcher in both regular season meetings and it’s not likely to change with their third meeting.
54th District (Games played at Hazard):
Tuesday night will see Leslie County take on perennial 14th region power Perry County Central in the opener. These teams only played once in the regular season and Perry Central blew out Leslie County. We’ll likely see a similar result in the postseason.
Wednesday night’s semifinal will have Buckhorn and Hazard going head to head. Hazard beat Buckhorn by 12 in their lone game back in December. Buckhorn has had a rough year with a 9-19 record and Hazard will look to keep them from advancing to the regional tournament.
55th District (Games played at Breathitt County):
Both semifinals take place on Tuesday night. The opener is Wolfe County against Riverside Christian. The two previous meetings have been massive Wolfe wins and they should take the third meeting as well.
The second semifinal features host Breathitt County going up against Jackson City. Breathitt knocked off Jackson City by double digits in both games this regular season so any other result would be a surprise here.
56th District (Games played at Lee County):
Both semifinal games go on Tuesday night. Estill County takes on Lee County in the opener. In their regular season games, Estill topped Lee by over 100 points combined so don’t be surprised if Estill wins by 50 or more on Tuesday as well.
The second semifinal is going to be Powell County and Owsley County. Powell County won the previous two games by 69 combined points so it’s unlikely that we’ll see a close game in either semifinal.
Predictions:
Champions: Knott County Central, Perry County Central, Wolfe County, Estill County
Runners-Up: Cordia, Hazard, Breathitt County, Powell County