Six local girls’ basketball teams have No. 1 seeds for the state public high school basketball tournament. The brackets were announced Sunday morning at Long Reach in Howard County.
Recently crowned Baltimore County champion and No. 15 Hereford has top billing in Class 3A North Region. The Bulls will play either Patapsco or Mervo in the quarterfinals March 1.
The Parkton school could have either defending region champ Western or Catonsville, the team the Bulls dethroned as county champions, in the region semifinals. In arguably the best first round match in the tourney, Western, seeded 13th visits No. 4 seed Catonsville Saturday afternoon.
The Doves, who reached the state title game last season, completes Baltimore City league play with Poly in the Division I title game at the Community College of Baltimore City Wednesday evening. Poly, ranked No. 9 in the area, is the third-seed in 3A North with No. 2 Aberdeen seeded second.
Area squads have three of the four No. 1’s in Class with Bel Air (East), Randallstown (North) and Glenelg (South). The Gladiators, ranked sixth in VSN’s Top 20, will play 10th ranked South River in the District V title game Tuesday evening at Meade. South River is seeded third in 4A East behind North Point of Charles County and Meade.
Defending state champ Arundel is the No. 8 seed. The Wildcats begin their title defense with an opening round match against Anne Arundel County rival Old Mill Saturday afternoon.
Dunbar (South) and Harford Tech (East) are top seeds in Class 1A. The Poets, seeking a second straight state Final Four trip, opens against either National Academy of Foundations or Southside Academy in the quarterfinals.
Harford Tech will likely have to contend with defending state champ Joppatowne in the East Region. The Mariners, seeded second, host either Sparrows Point or Loch Raven in the quarterfinals next week.
The state tournament begins with opening round action Saturday followed quarterfinal and semifinal play, March 1 and 3, respectively. Region championships will be decided March 5.
UMBC’s Retriever Athletic Center will again host the state Final Four, March 10th and 11th. The state title games will take place March 12th.
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