County tournaments highlight this week’s schedule with seven of the Tri-Eastern Conference boys basketball teams participating in events.
Four teams will be at the Wayne County Tournament in Hagerstown, with two in the Randolph County tourney at Monroe Central and one at Henry County, which is in Knightstown.
All three championships are slated for Saturday.
Third-ranked Northeastern (7-1) and Lincoln (5-4) get things underway in the Wayne County event on Thursday.
“You can’t look ahead,” Northeastern Head Coach Brent Ross said. “The number one thing we want to do is make sure we play well against Cambridge City.”
“They’ve got some size and (Lincoln Head Coach) Rodney (Klein) does a great job,” Ross added. “They are going to be up and ready for it. I expect a great ball game.”
Hagerstown (8-3) and Centerville (1-6) meet in the Friday contest. The Tigers beat Centerville 46-31 on Dec. 18.
“It’s hard to play anybody twice,” Hagerstown Head Coach Bobby Jones said. “I’ve got to believe they’ve gotten better since the last time we played them.”
“They sure played with an unbelievable amount of energy the first time. It’s going to be a typical Centerville-Hagerstown battle.”
Union City (5-3) and Union (0-7) face each in the Randolph County opener on Wednesday.
The following night the winner of that game plays Monroe Central (3-7). Randolph Southern (1-7) and Winchester (4-3) square off in Thursday’s second game.
Also on Thursday, Shenandoah (8-0) and Blue River (4-5) start the tourney in Henry County. Tri (4-5) and Knightstown (3-3) meet in the second affair.
Unlike the other events, the losers of the first round contests meet in the consolation game at Tri on Saturday.
In the only regular season contest this week, Union County (6-4) entertains Franklin County (6-2) on Saturday.