Win puts Woodrow in MSAC boys title game vs. SC
Here we are, about a week away from the end of the regular season, and we're just starting to find out who's playing in the MSAC Night of Champions.
Here we are, about a week away from the end of the regular season, and we're just starting to find out who's playing in the MSAC Night of Champions.
The state's largest Class AAA league has its gala end-of-the-year basketball event ready to go at the South Charleston Community Center Saturday, but one of the names on the invitations is still blank because of a couple postponed games and a dizzying series of tiebreakers in the East Division.
Following Princeton's upset of Woodrow Wilson on Wednesday, the league juggled the scheduling for a pair of key games involving East Division boys teams - Woodrow Wilson visited Greenbrier East Thursday night and George Washington travels to Greenbrier East tonight.
The Flying Eagles needed a victory Thursday to lock up a spot against South Charleston in the boys title game at 8 p.m. Saturday, and were able to do so. However, the identity of one of the teams in the boys second-place game at 4 p.m. is still a mystery because of all the possible ties in the East standings, not to mention who plays whom in the place-winner games, and when those games can take place.
Originally, GW was set to play at East Thursday and Woodrow was scheduled to make the trip to Fairlea next Tuesday - too late to impact the tightly bunched division standings.
In fact, Fred Aldridge, commissioner of the Mountain State Athletic Conference, originally agreed on Wednesday that Woodrow was in the title game because the Flying Eagles and Spartans didn't reschedule their game before the Night of Champions, and under those circumstances no one could catch the Flying Eagles.
That changed Thursday morning, however, when the league and its coaches decided to alter course and mandated that those two snowed-out games that affected the finish of teams one through six in the East Division be played. Aldridge said the Woodrow Wilson-East game was bumped up to Thursday so that if the Flying Eagles won, they would have a day of rest before meeting SC in the championship game Saturday.
Before Thursday's game, the possibility existed of two different four-way ties for first place in the East Division. The teams involved were Woodrow (then 5-1 in East games), Parkersburg (5-2), Princeton (5-2), George Washington (4-2) and Greenbrier East (3-2).
Jeff Mennillo, coach and assistant principal at Parkersburg, provided Aldridge with a breakdown of all four scenarios Thursday afternoon involving the two games, but only two apply now following Woodrow's victory on Thursday:
A (East loses to GW) - 1. Woodrow Wilson 6-1; 2. Parkersburg 5-2; 3. George Washington 5-2; 4. Princeton 5-2; 5. Capital 3-4; 6. Greenbrier East 3-4
B (East beats GW) - 1. Woodrow Wilson 6-1; 2. Princeton 5-2; 3. Parkersburg 5-2; 4. Greenbrier East 4-3; 5. George Washington 4-3; 6. Capital 3-4
The order of finish in the West was fixed several days ago - 1. South Charleston 7-0; 2. Huntington 5-2; 3. Hurricane 5-2; 4. Spring Valley 3-4; 5. Nitro 3-4; 6. St. Albans 3-4; 7. Cabell Midland 1-6; 8. Lincoln County 1-6.
Here we are, about a week away from the end of the regular season, and we're just starting to find out who's playing in the MSAC Night of Champions.
The state's largest Class AAA league has its gala end-of-the-year basketball event ready to go at the South Charleston Community Center Saturday, but one of the names on the invitations is still blank because of a couple postponed games and a dizzying series of tiebreakers in the East Division.
Following Princeton's upset of Woodrow Wilson on Wednesday, the league juggled the scheduling for a pair of key games involving East Division boys teams - Woodrow Wilson visited Greenbrier East Thursday night and George Washington travels to Greenbrier East tonight.
The Flying Eagles needed a victory Thursday to lock up a spot against South Charleston in the boys title game at 8 p.m. Saturday, and were able to do so. However, the identity of one of the teams in the boys second-place game at 4 p.m. is still a mystery because of all the possible ties in the East standings, not to mention who plays whom in the place-winner games, and when those games can take place.
Originally, GW was set to play at East Thursday and Woodrow was scheduled to make the trip to Fairlea next Tuesday - too late to impact the tightly bunched division standings.
In fact, Fred Aldridge, commissioner of the Mountain State Athletic Conference, originally agreed on Wednesday that Woodrow was in the title game because the Flying Eagles and Spartans didn't reschedule their game before the Night of Champions, and under those circumstances no one could catch the Flying Eagles.
That changed Thursday morning, however, when the league and its coaches decided to alter course and mandated that those two snowed-out games that affected the finish of teams one through six in the East Division be played. Aldridge said the Woodrow Wilson-East game was bumped up to Thursday so that if the Flying Eagles won, they would have a day of rest before meeting SC in the championship game Saturday.
Before Thursday's game, the possibility existed of two different four-way ties for first place in the East Division. The teams involved were Woodrow (then 5-1 in East games), Parkersburg (5-2), Princeton (5-2), George Washington (4-2) and Greenbrier East (3-2).
Jeff Mennillo, coach and assistant principal at Parkersburg, provided Aldridge with a breakdown of all four scenarios Thursday afternoon involving the two games, but only two apply now following Woodrow's victory on Thursday:
A (East loses to GW) - 1. Woodrow Wilson 6-1; 2. Parkersburg 5-2; 3. George Washington 5-2; 4. Princeton 5-2; 5. Capital 3-4; 6. Greenbrier East 3-4B (East beats GW) - 1. Woodrow Wilson 6-1; 2. Princeton 5-2; 3. Parkersburg 5-2; 4. Greenbrier East 4-3; 5. George Washington 4-3; 6. Capital 3-4The order of finish in the West was fixed several days ago - 1. South Charleston 7-0; 2. Huntington 5-2; 3. Hurricane 5-2; 4. Spring Valley 3-4; 5. Nitro 3-4; 6. St. Albans 3-4; 7. Cabell Midland 1-6; 8. Lincoln County 1-6.
Ultimately, the tiebreaker used to break apart those logjams of 5-2 teams came down to how each team did against Hurricane, the No. 3 team in the West.
The first tiebreaker was how each of the potential 5-2s did against South Charleston, the West champ, in the regular season, but since all five lost to the Black Eagles, it moved to how they did against the West's No. 2, Huntington. Since all five won against the Highlanders, it then moved to third-place Hurricane.
Hurricane beat Woodrow and Princeton and lost to Parkersburg, Greenbrier East and GW.
Thus, Huntington awaits the identity of the second-place East team - Parkersburg or Princeton - for a 4 p.m. date Saturday, the second game during the daylong Night of Champions, which begins at 10 a.m. at the Community Center with skills competitions. Heading into Thursday's game, four different teams were potential partners for the Highlanders in the second-place game.
"I'll be glad come Sunday morning,'' Aldridge said.
Teams that don't finish in either first or second place in their division meet in place-winner games that are usually held before the Night of Champions. The only two that were locked in by Thursday night, though, were Riverside at Cabell Midland (seventh place) and Ripley at Lincoln County (eighth place). Those will be played tonight.
Since Woodrow won, East can still finish in a tie for fifth with Capital and lose on a head-to-head tiebreaker. All the other place-winner games are in flux until GW plays the Spartans today, and will be reset for sometime next week.
The girls games for the Night of Champions have been set for quite some time - Greenbrier East plays South Charleston in the title game at 6, and Woodrow Wilson versus Spring Valley in the second-place game at 2.
Girls place-winner games were scheduled for Thursday night.
Reach Rick Ryan at 304-348-5175 or rickr...@wvgazette.com.
Get Connected