article 2014 7th Region Tournament Preview

[Getslow]

The Seventh Region tournament isn’t quite what it once was; realignment took its toll as did a few coaching changes and small declines in certain longtime powerhouses in the area. Still, this is unquestionably one of the deepest regional tournaments you’re likely to find anywhere in the Commonwealth and it should still manage to provide some great entertainment over the next week. Ballard and Trinity are the clear favorites to meet in the finals but both have played in hard-fought games with other teams in this field already this year. That, as they say, is why they play the games… and some great ones they ought to be.

 

 

Schedule

 

Wednesday, March 5

Quarterfinals

At Various Sites

Eastern at DuPont Manual, 7:00 pm

St. Xavier vs. Trinity at Bellarmine, 7:00 pm

Central at Male, 7:00 pm

Waggener at Ballard, 7:00 pm

 

Sunday, March 9

Semifinals

At Valley High School

Eastern/DuPont Manual winner vs. St. Xavier/Trinity winner, 6:00 pm

Central/Male winner vs. Waggener/Ballard winner, 7:45 pm

 

Tuesday, March 11

at Valley High School

Championship, 7:00 pm

 

 

Breaking Down the Matchups

 

Eastern at DuPont Manual

Eastern rolls into this year’s Seventh Region tournament as the 28th District runner-up (following a 58-76 loss to Ballard), winners of 13 of the 18 games they’ve played since the first of the year, and boasting a 10-2 record against Seventh Region competition. Of those five losses to this point in 2014, two were to top-ranked Ballard, one was a two-point loss to top-five Scott County, another was a five-point OT loss to the Doss Dragons in the LIT and the last was a three-point loss to Eighth Region favorites Collins in overtime on Feb. 1. Plainly put, outside the very best the Commonwealth has to offer, the Eagles have spent 2014 beating everyone they’ve come against.

 

Senior guards Austin Howard and Bryce Walker-Byrd as well as junior guard Cameron Reed and junior forward Trey Moses will be the players to pay special attention to in this game; they’ve been the core of this squad all season. The Eagles just edged out the Crimsons in a 68-64 contest that was decided in overtime back on Jan. 24.

 

DuPont Manual returns to its third consecutive Seventh Region tournament, the winner of two of the last three 25th District titles. The Crimsons boast an experienced team composed primarily of juniors and seniors with significant experience against the competition in the Seventh. Manual enters with a 19-10 record that perhaps belies their competitiveness. Despite running the difficult Seventh region gauntlet, the Crimsons have not lost by more than 10 points since a 78-61 defeat at the hands of Scott County back on December 30. Within the last two weeks, Manual scored a win over St. Xavier and played Ballard to a score of 70-78, the closest any Seventh Region team apart from Male and Trinity has played the Bruins all season.

 

The Crimsons will be paced by leading scorer Dwayne Sutton, their leading scorer this season (and among the best scorers in the Seventh) who can go off for a big game at any time. For the Crimsons to have a deep run, they’ll also depend on senior wing man Trey Chon Jones-Boyd and junior guard JaKory Freeman.

 

 

St. Xavier vs. Trinity

The Tigers seem somewhat battered of late as they enter this hugely-anticipated rivalry matchup in the quarterfinals. They’ve dropped three of their last four including a tough 72-76 loss to Male in the 26th District championship game. Prior to this recent slide, however, the Tigers had won five in a row including a victory over Waggener and a double-overtime win over that same Male Bulldog squad. Returning to perhaps the less positive side, the Tigers have already suffered a loss to five of the seven other teams in this year’s tournament field, including Trinity back on Jan. 10.

 

Success for the Tigers will ride – as it has for much of the season – on the shoulders of two players: senior guard Robert Shaw and junior guard Ashanti Burgess. Shaw is an outstanding player and the Tigers’ leader on the court, averaging 17.6 points per game this season. Burgess is not far behind, the second-leading scorer, averaging 11.3 points per game. Burgess also has the best long-range shooting of the primary contributors, making over 33 percent of his threes this season. For the Tigers to win, Burgess will likely need to sink a few big shots.

 

The Trinity Shamrocks enter the regional tournament as 27th District Champions for the third consecutive year. They boast an outstanding 26-5 overall record and the only losses they have all season come at the hands of a top team from Florida and to three of the Commonwealth’s top five squads: Scott County, Newport Central Catholic and Ballard. As continues to be the trend under Coach Mike Szabo, the Shamrocks win games with defense. For at least the third consecutive year, Trinity is the stingiest team in the Seventh, surrendering just 46.7 points per game to its opponents.

 

This season, the Shamrocks’ defensive efficiency begins with 6’9” junior forward Ray Spalding, whose height and skill can cause huge matchup problems for anyone they play. Spalding has a skill for blocking shots and averages over 10 rebounds per game. He also paces the Shamrocks in scoring, putting in over 13 points per game.

 

In addition, the Shamrocks depend greatly on senior guard Trey Ivory, the team’s second leading scorer at 10.2 points per game. Trinity’s ability to win its third Seventh Region title in school history will also depend on the play of senior forward Craig Owens (9.0 ppg, 5.6 rpg), who surrenders some height but uses his big frame to play a physical game that can make him difficult to handle in the post even for guys several inches taller.

 

 

Central at Male

Central’s move into the Seventh Region has thus far been a successful one as the Yellow Jackets have qualified for the regional tournament each of the three years since that realignment. This year however presents a great challenge as the wealth of talent that helped them compete over the last several years has graduated or otherwise departed, leaving Coach Doug Bibby with perhaps his most challenging year in his time on West Chestnut Street.

 

The Yellow Jackets are a young squad. There are no seniors on this year’s roster. Junior guard Brandon Johnson has emerged as a leader and as the team’s most reliable scorer. They’ll depend on him greatly to make a run. Though coming up short, Central has played some of their best games against the top competition in the city, coming up just short in recent matchups with Eastern (12 points), Ballard (8 points), and Holy Cross (4 points).

 

While much of Central’s struggles this season were well anticipated due to the departure of so many experienced players, Louisville Male spent 2013-14 as the most puzzling team in the city. Projected to be among the better teams in the Seventh, the Bulldogs begain the season 1-5 before finding themselves briefly at Christmas time. Nonetheless, the Bulldogs continued to win a few here and there, lose a few here and there as the season progressed. They’ve won five of seven games entering the regional tournament, including victories over fellow regional participant Waggener, archrival DuPont Manual and the 26th District championship over St. Xavier. They also won the regular season meeting with Central, 62-41.

 

Male depends heavily on long, talented frontcourt to get things done. It begins with 6’7” junior Will Parker, the team’s leading scorer. Where Male’s had some difficulty is with their new guards, who have often had trouble controlling the ball, but when senior guard P.J. Scott is playing well – as he was in Male’s district championship over St. X in which he scored 26 – then Male becomes a difficult team to beat.

 

 

Waggener at Ballard

The Waggener Wildcats at long last make their triumphant return to the Seventh Region Tournament, their first since 1999. As a reward for that accomplishment, they’ll play the state’s top team, Ballard. Nonetheless, making the field marks an excellent turnaround of the program under third-year coach Bryan O’Neil. The Wildcats started the season red-hot, winning 9 of their first 10 games, but cooled a little bit after Christmas and the grind of January and February in Louisville wore on. Still, the last month has seen Waggener score wins over tournament participant DuPont Manual and Sixth Region contender Doss.

 

The Wilcats are led by a supremely talented group of sophomores, notably Devon Cooper (14.2 ppg), Brandon Wells (9.5 ppg), and Kevin Kirby (8.6 ppg). Cooper is making three point shots at nearly a 40 percent clip and averages at least two made threes per game on the season. Also among the major contributors and the team leaders are senior guard Semaj Ingram (7.8 ppg) and senior forward Roderick Maddox (5.8 ppg, 5.9 rpg).

 

When Ballard and Waggener met on Jan. 10, the Bruins won fairly decisively: 87-70.

 

The Ballard Bruins enter this tournament as the defending 7th region champion, defending state runner up, and the No. 1 ranked team in the Commonwealth. They also boast wins over every single team in the tournament field and put up a 15-0 record in Seventh Region play this year. In a word: dominating.

 

The Bruins are led by two big time players, both of whom have already signed on to play Division I college basketball. Senior point guard and University of Louisville signee Quentin Snider is Ballard’s all-time leading scorer, having passed Allan Houston’s mark for that distinction earlier this year. He is averaging 22.3 points per game and is shooting nearly 50 percent from the field this season.

 

Senior forward and Butler University signee Kelan Martin is scoring at an even greater clip: 23.2 ppg. He’s also hauling in 8.9 rebounds per game and has greatly improved his shooting this year; Martin is shooting over 50 percent from the field, a mark that includes his constantly-improving three-point shot, which he’s now making at a 36.3 percent clip.

 

In addition, the Bruins boast supremely talented underclassmen in Jalen Perry (10.9 ppg) and Malik Dow (5.3 ppg, 6.3 rpg).

 

Ballard leads the Seventh Region in total offense, averaging 84.3 points per game. Stopping them is a monumental challenge for any team and if unable to do so, it’s nearly impossible to run with them at that pace.

 

 

Predictions

 

Quarterfinals

Eastern over DuPont Manual

Trinity over St. Xavier

Male over Central

Ballard over Waggener

 

Semifinals

Trinity over Eastern

Ballard over Male

 

Championship

Ballard over Trinity

[JokersWild24]

Great job Getslow.

 

Booked my trip to Lex for the weekend of the Sweet 16 a few minutes ago.

 

I look for Ballard to take it all. That was my preseason pick this year.

 

I've picked the preseason champion the past 3 years running (check my thread history if you don't believe me... Christian County, Trinity, and Madison Central... so I have that goin' on).

 

4 for 4? Anyone wanna name another team from the field they'd rather take?

 

I don't see anyone beating the Bruins this year.

[JokersWild24]

Most intriguing of your match-ups:

 

Trinity vs. St. Xavier

 

 

Want to take in one of those one day. Definitely on my bucket list of KY HS basketball games. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the atmosphere alone is worth the price of admission.

[Getslow]

Most intriguing of your match-ups:

 

Trinity vs. St. Xavier

 

 

Want to take in one of those one day. Definitely on my bucket list of KY HS basketball games. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the atmosphere alone is worth the price of admission.

 

They're not quite as rowdy as they used to be. They moved the regular-season matchup to Freedom Hall a few years ago and it's simply too big for the atmosphere to be great. The old games at Bellarmine were ROWDY. But Bellarmine was simply too small for the game and lots of fans would be left out.

 

That said, this postseason matchup IS being played at Bellarmine and I expect it to be quite an environment tonight. Knights Hall should be crazy.

[3fromdeep]

Corey Douglas is all most at full strength for Ballard now also. Had 10 and 13 points respectively in last two games.

 

Will definitely help down the stretch.

[tcjkbt]

Great job as usual, Getslow.

[Getslow]

According to both the C-J and the KHSAA scoreboard, the times for Sunday's semifinals were moved around in all the shifting with the bad weather earlier in the week.

 

Trinity vs. DuPont Manual is at 3:00 pm

Ballard vs. Male will follow at approximately 4:45 pm.

 

Both will still be played at Valley and Tuesday's championship is still set for 7 pm.

[hoops5]

Well done, Getslow!