Local teams prepare for postseason play as Liberty, Bristol nab top seeds
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The girls high school basketball regular season began 85 days ago. Games have been won, some have been lost and the dominoes have fallen accordingly.
Now, the postseason is here -- the place where dreams are made and glory is achieved.
Several teams throughout the Mahoning Valley earned high seeds in their respective district playoff brackets for their success this season.
As champions of the MVAC-Grey Tier, Liberty earned a No. 1 seed in the Struthers district of Division III. Meanwhile, Bristol, led by D'Youville University-signee Belle Zirzow, were the other local squad to play itself into a No. 1 seed as champions of the Northeastern Conference. The Panthers will sit atop the Grand Valley district in Division IV.
Both teams enter the playoffs with high expectations. A district title has been on the Leopards' list of goals all season long.
"I think the No. 1 seed is definitely a target," Liberty head coach Deidre Watson said. "Every team in the bracket is a threat. You never know what type of game a team or a player will have, so you have to take each individual competitor seriously...I'm always telling (my players) that playoff basketball is a little bit different, so coming in with intensity is going to be key to winning."
Opting to play a first-round game, Liberty is set to host No. 24 seed East Palestine on Feb. 16. Should they win, No. 22-seeded Mineral Ridge awaits in the next round.
A plethora of local teams make up the rest of the bracket, including Grand Valley, South Range, Ursuline, United, LaBrae, Campbell and No. 2 seed Brookfield. The Warriors, boasting two talented scorers in Sophia Hook and Audrey Reardon, were the only team to defeat Liberty this season, as the two squads split their regular season meetings.
"Playing a team three times is always tough," Watson said about the possibility of facing Brookfield for the district title. "You know what type of players they have and how they move on the court. You have to be ready for possible changes and just play your game of basketball. You can't be worried about who you're playing, you just have to execute."
Elsewhere in Division III, Garfield and Champion are the highest local seeds in the Lakeview district and should they win out, could face one another for the district title. The two teams split their regular season meetings. Both teams have the possibility of coming across other local squads like Columbiana, Crestview and Pymatuning Valley should they advance.
In the Grand Valley district of Division IV, Bristol has opted for a slightly different playoff path than Liberty. The Panthers will have a first round bye, where it will await the winner of Middlefield Cardinal and Ashtabula St. John School
But even though they don't know who their opponent will be yet, it doesn't affect the Panthers' preparation.
"The big key for what we work on is that we try to be good at what we do, not so much worry about what other teams do," said Bristol head coach John King. "So when we do find out our opponent, we'll make adjustments to what we do, but we're not going to completely change anything."
Sprinkled elsewhere throughout the bracket are teams Bristol has already faced and beaten at least once this season, including Badger, Mathews, Chalker and No. 5 seed McDonald. Other local squads like Lowellville and Western Reserve are also in the district's bracket.
Despite their familiarity with some of their opponents, however, King said they're not taking their position lightly.
"The way we've always treated it when I talk to the girls is you're rewarded for your season by your seed, but once the new season starts, you're nobody," King said. "We have to prove ourselves again. We've got to get through each game and it could end any night. We're not overconfident. We're not taking anyone for granted or lightly by any means. Anybody can beat anybody on any given night."
No. 2 seed Springfield and No. 4 seed Jackson-Milton are the top dogs in the Mineral Ridge district of Division IV, with the two squads splitting their pair of regular season meetings. Milton won the first meeting 64-60 in early January, but Springfield bounced back to beat Milton at home earlier this month.
Valley Christian, Leetonia, Sebring McKinley, Lordstown, Maplewood, John F. Kennedy, Windham and Newton Falls round out the Mineral Ridge district.
In Division II, No. 2 seed Salem is the highest seeded local team, sitting with a first-round bye in the Lakeside district. The Quakers will face the winner of Girard and Jefferson. Salem finished second in the Eastern Buckeye Conference this season behind No. 1 seed Marlington, while sweeping rival West Branch, which will be the No. 4 seed in the Uniontown Lake district.
Other local teams in Salem's bracket include Struthers, East and Chaney, while West Branch's bracket features Niles, Lakeview, Hubbard, Cardinal Mooney and No. 5 seed Poland.
Finally, in Division I, Canfield is a team that is hitting its stride at the right time of year. The Cardinals have won eight of their last nine games dating back to mid-January, including a pair of wins in the past week against rivals Howland and Poland.
"We're the smallest enrollment team in Division I in the state, I think we share that with Aurora," said Canfield head coach Matt Reel. "So we're playing teams twice our size most of the time, sometimes three times our size. So we really just try to advance as far as we can. We feel like getting to a district semifinal in Division I is almost like sometimes getting to a district final in some lower divisions."
Reel added that he feels shooting is the key for the Cardinals to go on the run that they want to make.
After splitting their two regular season meetings by a combined three points, the 14th-seeded Cardinals shared the All-American Conference regular season title with Howland, and could very well see the Tigers for a third time this season, should both teams win their first round matchups in the Massillon district -- Canfield against No. 34 seed Warren G. Harding and Howland against Madison.
"I think if that were to happen -- that would be a matchup that a lot of people would be interested in," Reel said. "In talking to [Howland] Coach [Aaron] Pounds, we both agree that we're pretty evenly matched teams and it'll come down to just who plays better. Sometimes the ball bounces your way and on certain nights it doesn't. So if it happens, we'll be ready for it."
Boardman is the other local squad in the Massillon bracket and will face No. 30 seed Kent Roosevelt Saturday, while Austintown Fitch earned a No, 18 seed and will face Canton McKinley in its first-round matchup Saturday in the Ravenna district of Division I.