D4 Southeast District Preview

<p>Tournament coverage continues as I look at Southeast Ohio and the Division IV districts. We’ve seen some double digit seeds make runs out of D-IV. Who could be the surprise team this year?</p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Southeast 1</span></p> <p>Top Teams: Trimble, Western, Federal Hocking</p> <p>Sleeper: Whiteoak- The Wildcats have been an up-and-down team this year and haven’t performed where some thought they would preseason. The guard combo of <strong>Bradley Ashbaugh</strong> and <strong>Landon Barnett</strong> is one of the better combos in this bracket. Guards win games in the tournament and I think that’s enough for this group to be at least a team to watch.</p> <p>District Final: Trimble over Western- The Tomcats were undefeated until losing yesterday to Federal Hocking. They returned everyone from a year ago and had little issue getting the top seed led by their scoring leader <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="967179" first="Blake" last="Guffey"]</strong>. Western has been one of the best teams in SE Ohio and haven’t lost since December 17th. I was surprised to see them come in at the 4-seed but they have a great senior in <strong>Kolten Miller</strong> who can be a problem for opposing defenses. This will be a great game if it happens, but I feel Trimble has the experience to get through this District.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Southeast 2</span></p> <p>Top Teams: Lucasville Valley, Symmes Valley, Fairfield</p> <p>Sleeper: Fairfield- The Lions made a run to the District Finals as an 11-seed a year ago and have played the role of bracket buster before. They can do it again as the Lions have lost once in 2022 and recently knocked off Fayetteville-Perry. I like this team and their demeanor as they’ve played a tough schedule with losses to Fairland, Lucasville Valley, and Eastern Brown. <strong>Reese Teeters</strong> and <strong>Tytis Cannon</strong> lead this group.</p> <p>District Final: Lucasville Valley over Symmes Valley- Valley has been one of the better teams in SE Ohio in D4 and have a couple different guys they go to. The Indians already faced Symmes Valley earlier in the year and won big 78-46. Before losing to Western last Saturday, Symmes had not lost a game since that matchup. I like this Valley team and their upperclassmen led by <strong>George Arnett</strong> and <strong>Bryce Stuart </strong>and feel the Indians have enough guys that do enough things to get them a District Final after falling short a year ago.</p>