North Dakota Playoff Central: March 6
The Class A State Tournament for the week is set and Regional play in Class B starts tonight. What a great time to be alive for North Dakota Hoops Fans!
The Big Stage. With five Region Tournaments going on right now there are many options to pick from. Dickinson Trinity High School (Region 7), NDSCS (Region 1), Grand Forks Betty (Region2), Jamestown Civic Center (Region 3), and Bismarck Legacy (Region 5) are all hosting four games this evening.
Games of the Night. Northern Cass vs Hankinson and Milnor/North Sargent vs Wyndmere/Lidgerwood are good contests to see in Region 1 while Region 5 has a fun TLMM vs Flasher game. The game of the night is likely Hott-Regent vs Hettinger/Scranton.
State Brackets. If you didn’t know, state is set. But how did we get there? Let’s take a look back.
The biggest moment of the Class A conference tournaments may have been Century knocking out Minot in the final. Why? That puts Davies, Minot, and West Fargo all on the same side of the bracket with Bismarck Century taking on surprise Shanley in round one.
Best teams that missed out? I would have to say Devils Lake and GFRR are the most disappointed as they had promising years result in a missed trip to state and more losses than they expected. Sheyenne beating West Fargo and Devils Lake losing to GFRR set up that West Fargo/Devils Lake excellent play-in game. Then GRFF seemed to have a nice shot at state but lost to Stanley.
Now state looks like…..Fargo Davies vs Bismarck and Minot vs West Fargo in the top bracket, Bismarck Century vs Shanley and West Fargo Sheyenne vs Dickinson in the bottom bracket. The Minot/West Fargo game is the match-up of the first round but remember, Sheyenne has won 15 of 20 since a slow start.
Upset City. Shanley knocked off GFRR led by 26 points from Jake Reinholz and another 20 from Jake Kava. The two led Shanley to a 20-2 run in the first half that was the difference maker.
Tip of the Hat to a Great Career. Jacob Mertens. Scored 20 points a game on 48 percent shooting, 44 percent shooting at the arc, and 75 percent foul shooting. Led his team in scoring, assists, steals, and was third in boards.