District Tournament Previews: 7th 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 Seventh region where Trinity is the heavy favorite to advance to Rupp Arena next month. Here’s a district by district breakdown of the match-ups:
25th District (Games played at Old Male High School):
Another 5 team district, this one tips off with a rematch between 5-22 Shawnee and 13-14 Portland Christian. When they met in the regular season, Shawnee escaped with a 2 point win. The winner of this rematch will take on Central on Thursday night. Central had a sub-par season by their standards when they finished 7-15 but they were a perfect 4-0 against district foes.
The second semifinal on Thursday is between DuPont Manual and St. Francis. Manual defeated St. Francis by 39 in their lone regular season game and it would be a surprising result if St. Francis was able to knock off Manual the second time around.
26th District (Games played at St Xavier):
Both games are played on Tuesday night. The opener features St. Xavier taking on Brown. The lone matchup in the regular season resulted in a 38 point win by the Tigers of St. X. It would be a big surprise if they didn’t win to advance to the championship game.
The second game features Louisville Collegiate going head to head against Male. Collegiate did finish the season 23-7 but played most of the worst teams in the state. When Collegiate and Male played in the regular season, Male defeated the Titans by 38. It would be a big surprise if Male wasn’t victorious again Tuesday night.
27th District (Games played at Waggener):
Both games are being played at Waggener on Tuesday night. The first game features Atherton taking on Trinity. If Atherton were to pull of an upset, it would be more surprising than when David knocked off Goliath. Trinity can probably name the score in that one.
The second game between Waggener and Seneca should be more competitive. The Wildcats beat Seneca by 9 in their only regular season game. Seneca is capable of pulling off an upset over Waggener but they are certainly the underdog in this semifinal.
28th District (Games played at Eastern):
Again both semifinals are played on Tuesday night. In the first game, Ballard takes on Kentucky Country Day. Ballard won the regular season meeting against KCD by 19 and if the postseason matchup is closer than their last encounter, I will be surprised.
The other semifinal features Eastern taking on Christian Academy of Louisville. The host Eagles will be a heavy favorite over CAL. In their regular season meeting the Eagles won by 19 over CAL.
Predictions:
Champions: Central, St Xavier, Trinity, Ballard
Runners-Up: DuPont Manual, Male, Waggener, Eastern