I haven't seen a 1st Region All A preview on here or report of any kind lately so I decided to jump into the fray. Quite honestly coverage of 1st Region Basketball locally has been awful and I haven't seen any previews here either. We miss Joey Fosko quite a bit. So here you go.

 

The tournament started yesterday with 2 play-in games. Carlisle County smashed Christian Fellowship 59 to 23 and Fulton City outlasted Community Christian Academy 49 to 39 setting up the Quarterfinals beginning Monday the 20th.

 

Quarterfinals

1-St Mary 12-5 vs. 8-Fulton City 3-9. Saying this game is a mismatch is an understatement. Fulton City's only 3 wins have come against bottom of the region teams CFS and CCA although they have gotten slightly better of late. St Mary is the overwhelming tournament favorite and their pressure will bother Fulton City. Expect this to get ugly early.

 

4-Hickman County 5-8 vs. 5-Ballard Memorial 1-8. The records would suggest that this should be a Hickman win but Ballard has played a pretty tough schedule so far. Hickman survived a tough schedule stretch of their own and have won two in a row since. They beat Murray in a surprise and handled Fulton City pretty easily in their last game. 5 of Ballard's 8 losses have come against the top teams in the region and they have also lost to Mayfield and Murray. I expect this to be a very good game and believe it could go either way. I'll take Hickman in a close one.

 

2-Mayfield 6-9 vs. 7-Carlisle 6-10. Typically Carlisle is a very dangerous team in this tournament but this isn't the typical Carlisle team. They are catching a Mayfield team that is improving by the game. They struggled coming out of football early but since Christmas have posted a record of 2 and 3 but the losses were all competitive games with 3 of the top 5 teams in the Region. Their last game was a road win at Webster County which is always a tough place to win. I expect Mayfield to win by a sizable margin in this game.

 

3-Murray 7-7 vs. 6-Fulton County. There was a point not that long ago that Murray seemed like the biggest threat to St Mary's chances of winning the All A Regional, but Mayfield has taken that title as of now. Murray has played well this season but has struggled a little in their last few games. They beat Ballard by 4 at home and then lost by 10 on the road at Hickman and then had a disappointing 20 point loss to crosstown rival Calloway County. Fulton County is beginning to show signs of improvement and have won 3 in a row but I still expect Murray to prevail in this game although it may be close for a while.

 

Semifinals-My predictions

1-St Mary vs. 4-Hickman. These teams played right after the Christmas break at Hickman and St Mary prevailed 72 to 61. I expect a tough minded Hickman team to make this a good game but St Mary will be too much in the end. The key will be how does Hickman handle St. Mary's pressure. In the end Hickman will have a tough time matching up with Hubert while not freeing up the Vikings other shooters.

 

2-Mayfield vs. 3-Murray. This may very well be the best game of the tournament if it happens. Mayfield is emerging fast as a very good team and is getting solid play out of Love and Bacon as well as others. On the other hand can Murray's young players who seem to show so much promise for the future reach their potential and make the finals? I will take Mayfield in a great one here.

 

Championship

St Mary vs. Mayfield. I expect this to be a great one but I'll go with the biggest tournament favorite in quite some time. St Mary will advance to state in a close one.

 

Players to watch. Patrick Hubert, St Mary; Deandre Love, Mayfield, Marshall Bacon, Mayfield; James Boone, Murray; Billy Speed, Hickman

Updates

8 seed Fulton City defeated 9 seed CCA

7 Carlisle County defeated 10 seed CFS

 

Quarter finals

1 seed St. Mary defeated 8 seed Fulton City

7 seed Carlisle County defeated 2 seed Mayfield.

Beyond shocked that Carlisle beat Mayfield. What an amazing job by their coaching staff and players. St. Mary almost seems like a forgone conclusion at this point. Of course I was wrong before (just look above!)

Ballard beats Hickman 60 to 52. Mild surprise.

3 seed Murray defeats 6 seed Fulton County, 66-58

Semifinals on Friday Night @ Paducah Tilghman

 

6:00 #1 St. Mary vs. #5 Ballard Memorial

7:45 #3 Murray vs. #7 Carlisle County

 

Finals Saturday Night @ 8:00