2/12/2010 - H/W/S Tourney To Tip Off
The first-ever Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex Boys and Girls Basketball Tournament will get under way this weekend and the following is a primer on the tourney’s format and a preview of what to expect.
First off, the tourney brackets are seeded by an online system in which the 10 coaches from Sussex and the 10 coaches from Hunterdon/Warren seed the teams from their area 1-through-10.
For example, the Sussex coaches seed the Sussex teams and the H/W coaches the teams from their two counties.
Each seed is given a numerical value with the team with the lowest point value receiving the top seed. For a first-place vote a team will receive one point. For a second-place vote, you receive 2 points and so on through 10. So the most points a team can accumulate is 100 points, and the lowest is 10 points.
If there is a tie, the first criteria is head-to-head, then records against common opponents, and then overall record based on winning percentage.
Now if you are still with me, once the seeds are set, here is how the brackets shake out. The top six teams in H/W and Sussex will receive a bye. The prelims this weekend will be as follows:
No. 10 H/W will travel to No. 7 Sussex
No. 10 Sussex will travel to No. 7 H/W
No. 9 H/W will travel to No. 8 Sussex
No. 9 Sussex will travel to No. 8 H/W.
The winners will advance to the first round which will be held Feb. 20 at the higher seed. So the first round will consist of 16 teams and eight games. So if there are no upsets (there will be no reseeding), the bracket will look like this:
No. 8 Sussex at No. 1 H/W
No. 8 H/W at No. 1 Sussex
No. 7 Sussex at No. 2 H/W
No. 7 H/W at No. 2 Sussex
No. 6 Sussex at No. 3 H/W
No. 6 H/W at No. 3 Sussex
No. 5 Sussex at No. 4 H/W
No. 5 H/W at No. 4 Sussex
The boys quarterfinals will be held Feb. 22 at Warren Hills and Hopatcong at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. and the girls quarterfinals will be held Feb. 23 at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. at Hackettstown and Sparta.
The boys semifinals will be Feb. 24 at Voorhees at 5 and 7, while the girls semifinals will be hosted by High Point at 5 and 7 p.m. on Feb. 25.
The tourney’s championships will be at Centenary College in Hackettstown on Saturday, Feb. 27 with the girls title tilt tipping off at 5 p.m. and the boys championship starting at 7 p.m.
Got it? I hope so because the same format will be used for baseball and softball in the spring, and it was used quite successfully, I might add, in the fall for soccer and field hockey.
Ok, now onto the teams. The brackets were released this week and we will start with the boys.
In Sussex, Vernon (9-9) received the top seed, and rightfully so. Red-hot Sparta (9-8) is the No. 2 seed, while Hopatcong (15-5) and Pope John (7-10) round out the top 4, at No. 3 and No. 4, respectively.
High Point (10-11) sits at No. 5 and the rest of the seeds are as follows: Wallkill Valley (8-12) at No. 6, Lenape Valley (7-12) at No. 7, Kittatinny (6-11) at No. 8, Newton (6-13) at No. 9 and Sussex Tech (8-10) at No. 10.
The H/W seeds are 1. North Hunterdon (9-6), 2. Warren Hills (9-11), 3. Phillipsburg (9-9), 4. Hackettstown (9-9), 5. Voorhees (6-11), 6. South Hunterdon (12-5), 7. Delaware Valley (9-8), 8. Hunterdon Central (4-13), 9. North Warren (5-13), 10. Belvidere (5-14).
This weekend we will see Newton at Hunterdon Central, Sussex Tech at Delaware Valley, North Warren at Kittatinny and Belvidere at Lenape Valley.
The Newton-HC matchup should be intriguing as the Newton is starting to round into shape as it always does under John Davey come tourney time. Hunterdon Central, which has won 10 H/W tourney titles and eight of the last 10 championships, is down this year, but their record is deceiving.
The Red Devils have played Group 4 power Ridge tough and are paced by Drew O’Donoghue and Evan Klimchak. But Newton, which captured seven Sussex County Interscholastic League Festivals, has won two straight behind Brian Winfield, Colin Doherty, and Jesse Bastin.
Don’t be surprised if the Braves come back a winner and advance to face Vernon next week.
Lenape Valley already owns a 68-45 win over Belvidere this season and the Pats behind Billy Sabo and Scott Wagenblast should advance to play Warren Hills.
The Kittatinny and North Warren clash should be a good one as Kittatinny will look to its big guy Seth Kott and combo-guard Steve Zappa to lead the way against the Pats and their top scorer Ryan Campbell. The winner will face North Hunterdon.
Sussex Tech will count on its man in the middle Jake Boylan and guard Stephon Blair to lead the way against Del Val, which will rely on its balanced attack of Dan Brokaw, Jay Gilligan and Andrew Leachman.
As for the overall picture, I see a Vernon-Hopatcong semifinal clash in the bottom half of the bracket as the Tintle Boys and Ricky Hemberger will square off with Hopatcong stud Matt Tobin.
I also see a local semi in the top bracket as Pope John and Sparta will face each other for a third time this season. The winner? I feel Vernon is battled-tested and will beat Sparta in the final.
Here are the girls seeds from Sussex: 1. High Point (16-4), 2. Wallkill Valley (13-6), 3. Vernon (14-4), 4. Sparta (9-8), 5. Pope John (7-8), 6. Kittatinny (8-9), 7. Newton (7-10), 8. Lenape Valley (5-13), 9. Hopatcong (4-14) and 10. Sussex Tech (6-13).
The H/W seeds are 1. North Hunterdon (15-1), 2. Delaware Valley (14-3), 3. Voorhees (14-3), 4. Hunterdon Central (13-7), 5. Phillipsburg (6-12), 6. Warren Hills (9-10), 7. Belvidere (9-9), 8. Hackettstown (8-8), 9. North Warren (7-10), and 10 South Hunterdon (4-13).
The prelims this weekend will feature North Warren at Lenape Valley, Sussex Tech at Belvidere, South Hunterdon at Newton and on Monday Hopatcong will travel to Hackettstown.
North Warren came into the season with some high hopes, so the Pats will be looking to make some hay in the tourney behind Adrianna Suk, Lauren Frick and Ciara Mastrodomenico.
Young Lenape Valley can be very dangerous behind freshman Lindsay Sabo and junior Devony DiMattia, so this one is a tossup. I’m going to go with the Pats from Blairstown in this one just because of the experience factor as they will face tourney-favorite North Hunterdon next week.
Sussex Tech has done some nice things this season behind 1,000-point scorer center Sarah Miebach and guard Carly Finklestein, but Belvidere is a very good 9-9 club so look for the County Seaters and Jessica Kiernan to advance to play Wallkill Valley as the Rangers will look to Ashley Napovier, Melissa Conrad, Carly Mangine and Kelsey Murray to lead the way.
Now years ago South Hunterdon was the darling of the H/W tourney behind its superstar Carolyn McCrea but those days are over and Newton behind Jolyn Ferrari and a stingy defense should win and face Del Val and its top player Alyssa Fleming in the first round.
Hackettstown already owns two wins over Hopatcong this season in NJAC-Freedom Division play and the Tigers should get their third and advance to play High Point, which has been paced by its great depth and two standout players, guard Alayna Donadio and center Leanna Tallamy.
High Point won the last three SCIL Festival titles under the guidance of coach Chris Dexter.
Unlike the boys bracket, the H/W girls teams are much deeper with North Hunterdon leading the way. North won the H/W last year and has won six titles overall. The Lions will look to last year’s tourney MVP Jess Pellechio, as well as Kelly Loughney and Blair Cuzzi.
The Sparta-P-burg clash next week should be fun, but it will be North and Wallkill battling in one semifinal with North Hunterdon earning a spot in the final.
Coming out of the other bracket should be High Point, but they will have to beat a very dangerous Pope John team, which topped High Point on opening night. Pope will look to super sophomore guard Alexis Breheny to lead the way.
In a great final, North Hunterdon will nip the Wildcats for their seventh tourney title.
In Morris County, Jefferson’s girls (16-2), the No. 4 seed, will play No. 5 Pequannock Saturday in the MCT quarterfinals at 1:30 p.m. at Morris Knolls. The Falcons are making their first appearance in the MCT since 1982 and they beat Parsippany for the second time this season to advance.
“They are pretty excited about it,” said veteran Jefferson coach Jim O’Connor, who led Jefferson to five SCIL Festival titles before the league was busted up last year. “It is definitely different when you have two different things going on with the county tournament and fighting for the Freedom Division title.
“It is exciting to see different teams, but I do miss playing against Chris (Dexter) and Fred (Geffken of Sparta). That was a lot of fun,” O’Connor added.
Jefferson’s boys topped Dover in the first round of the MCT before falling to Roxbury for a second time this season. The Falcons, however, are still in the driver’s seat for the Freedom Division title at 10-0, a game ahead of second-place Hopatcong (9-1).
That’s it for now, see you on the sidelines.
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