02.12.08 Girls Sectional Recap, Regional Preview
The Indiana High School Athletic Association girls basketball tournament wrapped up its sectional round Saturday night, and a number of repeat winners were joined by a handful of first-time champions and others who broke long title droughts.
Castle’s win in Sectional 16 in Class 4A was the school’s ninth consecutive sectional title. Castle has won its sectional every year since the inception of class basketball except for 1999, and won the state championship in 2006.
In Class 2A, Shenandoah also won its ninth straight championship. The run includes five regionals, four semi-states and two state championships.
Rushville won its 25th sectional title, most of any of this year’s 64 winners. Kokomo and Ben Davis both won the 20th sectional championships in school history.
Four schools won their fist-ever sectional championships, including Greensburg in 3A, Covenant Christian in 2A and University and Vincennes Rivet in 1A.
The longest sectional drought that was broken Saturday was 22 years. Eastern Greene’s last sectional championship was in 1985. Other teams with long spans between sectional championships include Seymour (1991), Vincennes Lincoln (1992) and North Miami and Western Boone (both 1996.)
Three teams take losing records into the regional this Saturday. Despite their long sectional championship run, Castle is just 10-11 this season. Eastern Greene is 11-15 after upsetting Bloomfield on their home court Saturday night. It’s a similar story for South Decatur, now 10-12 after upsetting Class 1A #3 Jac-Cen-Del on the Eagles’ home court Saturday night.
The best records in the regional field belong to Oregon-Davis (24-0), Northwestern (22-0), Oak Hill (22-0), Ben Davis (23-1), Heritage Christian (23-1), and Jimtown (21-1).
In addition to the four teams that have never played in a regional before, 11 others have never claimed a regional title. Six regionals feature two teams seeking their first titles, five more have one team that’s never won, and the other five have four former regional champions.
Indiana Sports Talk and IndianaSportsTalk.com are your source for regional scores this Saturday night. Thanks for visiting, and we hope you listen on our more than 40 stations around the state and check out the scoreboard online!
