In the 20-team field for Division I’s Southwest District in the North sectional, Xenia is the 20-seed. They likely have an upcoming meeting on Feb. 29 at Butler High School against No. 1 Centerville unless No. 19 Piqua can pull off an upset in round one.
Beavercreek is one of two local teams which will play their sectional at Centerville High School. The Beavers are the No. 2-seed and open tournament play against No. 17 Tecumseh on Feb. 22.
The next day on Feb. 23, Fairborn as the 13-seed will start its tournament run against No. 12 Belmont.
Bellbrook is the 13-seed in the Division II North sectional. Playing at Trotwood High School on Feb. 26, the Golden Eagles get a regular season rematch with No. 5 Kenton Ridge.
Greeneview has a bye in the Division III sectional at Butler High School, but already knows its first opponent. The Rams, the No. 9-seed, will play No. 5 Brookville on Feb. 28.
Yellow Springs has one of the toughest tests for its opening opponent of any Greene County school. The Bulldogs as the 23-seed play No. 1 Russia, which is also the top-ranked team in the Ohio AP Division IV state poll, on Feb. 23 at Troy High School.
Two local teams are both ranked in the top-5 for Division IV at the Piqua sectional. Cedarville as the 3-seed will face No. 24 Fairlawn on Feb. 22.
Legacy Christian on Feb. 24 will start its tournament run as the No. 5-seed against No. 15 Covington.
XENIA — The sectional tournament brackets for the boys basketball state tournament were created on Sunday.
Three Greene County teams finished as top-five seeds in their districts, as set by the MaxPreps Rating Percentage Index rankings as of midnight on Friday.
Beavercreek is the area’s highest seeded team as the Beavers got the 2-seed for Southwest District North of Division I. Cedarville and Legacy Christian in D-IV are the other highly ranked squads. The Indians are the 3-seed and the Knights the 5-seed in the expanded 26-team field for SW District North.
Sectional play begins the week of Feb. 19 and the first set of district finals will take place on March 9.
The state semifinals and finals will be again held at the University of Dayton Arena and will take place from March 22-24.
The RPI determined the seed order this season instead of a coaches vote being held as in previous years. The seed order continued to determine when coaches were allowed to place their teams into the bracket.
Here are the opening matchups for Greene County teams (records are as of final RPI rankings):
DIVISION I
No. 2 Beavercreek (15-5) vs. No. 17 Tecumseh (5-16), Thur., Feb. 22, 7:45 p.m. (Centerville HS)
No. 13 Fairborn (10-11) vs. No. 12 Belmont (11-10), Fri., Feb. 23, 8:30 p.m. (Centerville HS)
No. 20 Xenia (4-17) vs. No. 1 Centerville (13-6) or No. 19 Piqua (5-16), Thur., Feb. 29, 6 p.m. (Butler HS)
DIVISION II
No. 13 Bellbrook (11-10) vs. No. 5 Kenton Ridge (15-5), Mon., Feb. 26, 7:30 p.m. (Trotwood HS)
DIVISION III
No. 9 Greeneview (13-7) vs. No. 5 Brookville (15-6), Wed., Feb. 28, 7:30 p.m. (Butler HS)
DIVISION IV
No. 3 Cedarville (16-5) vs. No. 24 Fairlawn (2-19), Thur., Feb. 22, 6 p.m. (Piqua HS)
No. 5 Legacy Christian (15-4) vs. No. 15 Covington (8-12), Sat., Feb. 24, 7:30 p.m. (Piqua HS)
No. 23 Yellow Springs (5-15) vs. No. 1 Russia (19-1), Fri., Feb. 23, 6 p.m. (Troy HS)
Contact Steven Wright at 937-502-4498 and follow on X (formerly Twitter) @Steven_Wright_.
