Regular Season Ends, Second Season Begins

Snow and more on the way, but the regular season will end soon for both girls and boys basketball in the CCC.

Miami East Lady Vikings will likely win their 4th straight CCC league with Bradford left in regular season play. Tri-Village gave the Vikings their first conference loss this last Saturday after 46 straight conference wins. A great win at home for the Patriots and if there was a year to find kink in the East armor to get a victory; this may have been it. Both teams return a solid nucleus for next year's season and next year's battle at Miami East may be interesting, but Lady Vikings are going to be strong over the next 5 years with a solid 8th grade team moving up.

In looking at the Vikings non-conference schedule this season you have to be impressed with the teams they are playing. At one point earlier in the season only one team on their non- conf. schedule had more than one loss in their record. They still have a big game against Versailles before sectionals begin, but we all know that looking at the Tiger's record in relationship to the MAC doesn't mean anything. Regardless of the outcome of that game give the powers at be at East some props for meeting the challenge. Even with the loss to TV they have won their conference games by an average margin of 23 points this season while losing their non conference battles by a margin of 7 points. As the saying goes, what doesn't kill you will make you stronger and the young nucleus at Miami East will be that much better next year.

On the boys side there are still some big games to play and they all go through Franklin Monroe to determine the final outcome. The Jets still have Twin Valley South and Tri-Village on the road, but have a big game against Bethel this Tuesday (weather permitting). Currently the Jets have 2 conference losses, but they control their own destiny for a share of the conference crown if they win all three. A win against Bethel and TV will give the Bees and the Pats 2 conference losses, but they can't look too far past TVS since they beat a solid Allen Mack Miami East team at home this last Friday. So depending on the FM outcomes against TV and Bethel, we could have one conference champ with either Bethel or TV (which would give either team an overall lead with 7) or we could have a 2 or 3 co-champs.

An interesting side note with the Jets... they have the best conference record of any of the original members in the conference but they only have 4 conference titles in their CCC history. Their last CCC title was in 2003, which was the same team that won a District Championship in Div IV (which is also the last District Championship for the league in Division IV).

Speaking of District Championships... the sectional draw was today for the boys and the girls were drawn last Saturday. There some strong local team up against the CCC this year in the draw. Getting a team from boys or girls to the Regionals will be a challenge this year, but you know the teams from the CCC will be up for the challenge.

For girls Division IV at Brookville the CCC has all 4 seeds in that sectional so the odds of a District game are favorable. The teams waiting in the District game however will be formidable opponents as the MAC and Shelby County League will bring battle tested teams into the tournament. However, it won't be a surprise to see one or two of our teams in D. IV to play into the District Final as they match up well with teams coming out of Sidney and Monroe sectionals.

In Division III, Miami East, National Trail and Tri-County North will likely end up playing tough seeds in the sectional. Miami East will have to go through #1 seed Anna, while TCN will eventually see #2 seed Versailles and Trail has to face #3 seed Brookville in the first game of the tourney.

On the boys side in Division IV, it was a pick your poison type of a draw at Troy with #1 seed Jefferson or a very solid Southeastern team out of the Clark County as the #2 seed. TV drew the fourth seed at Troy and will have to go through CCC teams National Trail and Arcanum before ending up with Jefferson in the sectional title. For FM they took a first round bye, but will likely see the #2 seed in Southeastern in their first game of the second season. Newton still ended up in this sectional and has a favorable draw with Cedarville, but will end up seeing Jefferson in round two if they get by the Indians of Cedarville.

In Piqua, the scenery will be a different one for Ansonia and Mississinawa Valley. Fellow CCC teams Covington (4 seed) and Bradford will be in familiar territory, but will end up facing each other in the first round. MV will be in the lower bracket with Covington/Bradford and will face the winner of that game if they can sneak by the #3 seed Lehman Catholic in the first round. Waiting in the wings for the sectional title in the lower bracket will be the #2 seed with the Raiders of Russia. In the upper bracket at Piqua, the Ansonia Tigers drew favorable draw against Mechanicsburg and if they win that game they will face Houston. The winner of that bracket will likely face the #1 seed, Fort Loramie in the sectional final.

In Division III, the landscape looks a little better for Bethel (who drew the #3 seed), Miami East and TVS. Miami East could play their way to a sectional final with one win after taking a first round bye. They have to get by the winner of the Dixie/Stiver winner in their first game and would likely play the winner of the #3 seed in Greenview/Versailles winner. Bethel took a first round bye in the lower bracket in the same Dayton I sectonal and will play West Liberty Salem. With a little bit of luck, TVS could play their way out of that bracket and face the Bees for chance to play in the District game. For Tri-County North... they drew the last straw in the sectional and will play the #1 seed Anna Rockets in the Dayton II sectional in Division III.

Good Luck to all the CCC teams down the final season stretch and into the State Tournament. I'm going to get out of the house and cover some regular season games down the boys conference championship run and if OHSAA allows me in door; cover some sectional games. So stay tuned...