By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
The high school boys basketball regular season is wrapping up in the next week and the four squads from Adams County are now looking ahead to the postseason as the sectional tournament pairings for Division III and Division IV were released on Sunday afternoon by the OHSAA and the Southeast District Athletic Board.
In Division III, the highest seeded team from Adams County is the North Adams Green Devils. The Devils currently stand at 17-4 and earned the #4 seed on the sectional bracket. That translates into a home sectional championship game on Saturday, February 25 at 7 p.m. where the Devils will face off with the winner of a first-round contest between #13 seed Belpre (10-9) and #20 seed Adena (3-15). If the Devils capture that sectional crown they will move to the Division III district semi-finals at Waverly High School on February 28 at 8 p.m, where if the seeds hold they would likely face #5 seed Lucasville Valley (13-5), with a trip to the district finals at the Ohio University Convo on the line.
“We wanted the #3 seed but figured we would get the #4,” said North Adams head coach Nathan Copas. “Our goal is to just take one game at a time and hopefully get an opportunity to get to the Convo and play for a district championship. But like I said, we just have to take one game at a time.”
Moving up this year to Division III are Coach Josh Arey and his Peebles Indians. It hasn’t been the typical Peebles season as the Tribe stands at 9-11 overall and will be the #15 seed on the sectional bracket. The Indians will host #18 seeded Portsmouth (6-11) in a sectional semi-final contest on February 21 at 7 p.m. If the Peebles squad wins that first-round battle, they will move to a sectional title game on February 25 at 7 p.m., where they would make the long haul to South Point to face the #2 seeded Pointers (15-3) with a trip to the district tourney at stake.
“It’s a tough draw for us,” said Coach Arey. “Portsmouth is the best #18 seed I’ve seen in a long time. They took South Point to overtime and have had several good wins and close losses to some good teams.”
Also on the Division III bracket are Coach Jeff Stricklett and the West Union Dragons. The Dragons stand at 1-19 on the year and will be the #28 seed on the bracket, traveling to #5 seeded Lucasville Valley for a first-round sectional game on February 21 with a 7 p.m. tip off. If the West Union boys can pull off the upset, they would move to the sectional finals on February 25, facing the winner of #12 seed Westfall and #21 seed Piketon.
Finally, the only county team in Division IV will be Coach Austin Kingsolver and the Manchester Greyhounds. The Greyhounds sport a record of 7-14 overall and will be the #15 seed on the bracket, earning a home first-round sectional contest on February 20 at 7 p.m., where they will match up with #18 seeded Racine Southern. A win there propels the Hounds to the sectional finals on February 24 where they would travel to face #2 seeded Federal Hocking for the right to go to the district tourney at Athens High School.
“We’ve improved a lot as the year has progressed,” says Coach Kingsolver. “Our record indicates that we are pretty close to where we should be. With a record like ours, you’re going to have to beat some good teams to advance. We will do everything we can to be as prepared as possible and hopefully we can make a run.”
All of the Division III and IV sectional and district brackets can be found at https://www.ohsaa.org/Southeast-Sports-Tournaments/Basketball-Boys.