With a 21-0 record to this point, Coach Rob Davis and his North Adams Lady Devils are the #1 seed in the Southeast District Division III Sectional Tournament. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)

With a 21-0 record to this point, Coach Rob Davis and his North Adams Lady Devils are the #1 seed in the Southeast District Division III Sectional Tournament. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

The last week of the high school girls regular season is here which means that all the county squads are soon to focus their attention on postseason action. On Sunday afternoon, the girls teams of the Southeast District found out their destinations as the Division III and Division IV sectional/district brackets were released.

Leading the way from Adams County are Coach Rob Davis and his North Adams Lady Devils, whose unblemished 21-0 record earned them the number one seed in the Division III Southeast District brackets. The Division III tournament should be very competitive this year with 20 teams on the brackets sporting records of .500 or better.

With the top seed, the Lady Devils were given a first-round sectional bye, meaning they will host a sectional championship game on February 18 with a 1 p.m. tip off. That title contest will match the North Adams girls with the winner of a first round game that involves another county squad, Coach Bernie Cropper’s West Union Lady Dragons, who stood 6-13 at the time of the draw.

West Union will travel to face Ironton (3-16) on February 15 in a 7 p.m. tip off. The winner of that battle will then travel to Seaman three days later to play for the sectional crown. If favored North Adams gets out of the section, they may face another familiar foe in the district semi-finals on February 22 (time and site TBD) as they will match up with the sectional title winner of #12 seeded Lynchburg-Clay (11-7) and #13 seeded Piketon (12-6).

“We’re happy to get a number one seed,” said Coach Davis. “There are a lot of good teams in Division III and nothing is going to be easy for us. We’ve had wins against two Division II schools and our league is very competitive and we’ll have to come out ready to play every game.”

A new face in the county pops up this year in Division III as Coach Sidney Pell and her Peebles Lady Indians make the move up fro Division IV, by the slimmest of margins. The Lady Indians are in the midst of a late-season winning streak and stand at 13-8 at press time. The Peebles girls are the #14 seed in Division III and will be on the road for a sectional final contest on February 18 at 1 p.m., facing the # 11 seeded Minford Lady Falcons with a trip to the district tourney on the line. If the Lady Indians grab another sectional crown, they will be in district action on February 22 (site and time TBD) where they will likely find themselves facing off with the #2 seeded Portsmouth West Lady Senators.

“We would have liked to be a little higher in tournament draw but with several close losses it’s understandable to drop in the very competitive Southeast District,” said Coach Pell. “We feel like we had a gauntlet of a schedule going head to head with six of the top nine teams once the bracket had come out. Because of this, we know the level in which we have to play in order to compete against really good teams. We will travel to Minford for a chance to win a sectional title . We come in with a winning streak and hope to be one of those lower seeds that are playing good basketball at the right time and we’ll see where we can go from there.”

Only one county squad will compete in the Division IV tourney this season, Coach Brandon Hinson and the Manchester Lady Greyhounds. The Lady Hounds stood 2-14 at the draw and are the #17 seed. Manchester will face a long road trip on February 13 with a 7 p.m. tip off at #16 seeded Ironton St. Joseph. If the Lady Hounds pull off that upset, they get the reward of facing #1 seeded Portsmouth Notre Dame (16-1) on February 15 in the sectional title game.

All of the Division III and IV tournament brackets can be found at https://www.ohsaa.org/Southeast-Sports-Tournaments/Basketball-Girls.