Sectional Finals: What Did We Learn
Sectionals are now complete and we are down to just 64 teams left. Saturday brought a ton of surprises and great games. We are ready to take a look back and see how things unfolded.
Six Overtime Sectional Finals
As it was with the first night of Sectionals, the finals had plenty of drama with six games going into overtime. This was a fantastic night of hoops and some of those drew out in the form of upsets with Evansville North beating Castle, Southridge taking down perennial favorite Vincennes Lincoln, and Lapel beating Frankton. North beating Castle was by the far the biggest surprise of the night. Frankton had a tougher in a tough Sectional and Lapel just got through and deserving so with their play.
Mount Vernon-Fortville Comes Out Of The Pack
We spoke at the beginning of the week as the Richmond Sectional was more or less wide open with Connersville being a favorite. However, Mt. Vernon took use of their bye game and prepped well for Connersville and pulled off the upset. New Palestine took down a solid Pendleton team and then a two-headed offensive team in Richmond. It was a weird Sectional and really ended up being fun at the end of the day.
Shenandoah Takes It To Howe
It looked like from the jump, Shenandoah was going to impose their will. They are a grind-it-out team and Howe has had problems with them in the past. This was just another example of difference of styles and one winning out. Howe might have actually had an easier time in Regionals than in this Sectional but that is how it goes sometimes.
Forest Park Needed Another Buzzer Beater To Win Sectionals
No just once, but twice Forest Park needed a buzzer beater to win a game. North Posey tied the game up with around ten seconds to go in this game but without taking a timeout, Forest Park went the length of the floor and got an open look from three to win 47-44. When you have luck, you have everything. They beat South Spencer on Wednesday with one, and again on Saturday.
Quick Hits:
Valparaiso 46, Merrillville 43 – This was a close game and even had Merrillville up early. Good comeback for Valpo.
Fort Wayne North 57, Carroll 44 – North struggled for a long time before being able to turn it on. Good confidence win for them.
Terre Haute South 54, Brownsburg 45 – One of the more surprising scores. South, while talented, was up and down all year.
Calumet 53, Twin Lakes 39 – First Sectional Championship since 1999-00 for Calumet.
Lebanon 43, Greencastle 28 – Lebanon is one of a couple teams with a record under .500 that won Saturday. They are 11-15.
Attucks 76, Cardinal Ritter 69 – Ritter was down as much as 17 points before coming all the way back to push it to OT.
Southridge 69, Vincennes Lincoln 65 – Southridge’s first Sectional since 2006-07 took double-overtime to get.
Evansville Bosse 67, Evansville Memorial 62 – This is Bosse’s third win over Memorial this year but this was the closest game.
Covington 39, Seeger 35 – Close game that took overtime for Covington after having to make a comeback in this game.
South Knox 72, Eastern Greene 44 – SN lost by 6 earlier in the year to EG. Impressive win and a statement.
Barr-Reeve 40, Loogootee 39 – Barr-Reeve was in trouble nearly all game. Very lucky to make it out alive.