Trotwood (Division II) was one of six area teams to be voted No. 1 seeds in the upcoming sectional high school tournaments during Sunday’s multiple coaches meetings. Other top seeds were Springfield (D-I), Urbana (D-II), Versailles (D-III), Russia (D-IV) and Southeastern (D-IV).
RELATED: Complete sectional tournament pairings
This is the final regular-season week for most boys teams. First-round sectional play begins Feb. 20. The girls sectional draws were held last week and play begins this week.
There were no surprises among the boys seedings and no unusual first-round matchups. Trotwood (18-2) figured to be tops in a loaded D-II field that includes No. 2 Dunbar (19-3) and No. 3 Alter (17-3), despite being upset at Fenwick last Friday. Franklin (16-4), which has been ranked among the state’s top 10 all season, could do no better than a No. 4 seed.
The top three D-II seeds each placed themselves in separate Trent Arena brackets. Barring upsets, Trotwood and Dunbar would have a rematch in a regional final also at Trent. Trotwood defeated visiting Dunbar 98-89 on Feb. 4.
Trotwood has two regular-season games remaining — Tuesday vs. visiting Stebbins and Friday at Springfield in a matchup of the area’s best teams.
“We feel we have an opportunity,” Rockhold said. “That doesn’t mean anything in the end, but we feel we have an opportunity. We’re excited. We’re ready for the tournament.”
Urbana (12-8) was seeded No. 1 in essentially a Central Buckeye Conference sectional at Springfield High School.
D-I: No surprise that Springfield (17-2) is No. 1. The Wildcats completed a two-game sweep at Wayne last Friday and rocked host Columbus Northland 75-56 on Saturday, dropping Northland to 16-3.
Northmont (17-4) trumped its first outright conference title since 1975 as the No. 2 seed.
“You want to keep growing and getting better every year and we’ve been doing that and our seeding has improved,” Northmont coach Collin Abels said. “When you look at the Dayton area and the amount of good coaches it’s an honor for a No. 2 seed. That being said, it’s just a number. You’re going to have to go and do it on the court and win games.”
RELATED: Springfield top seed in Dayton Division I sectional
Wayne (14-7) is seeded third and Sidney (16-4) fourth. The Yellowjackets are the only Ohio team to beat Trotwood.
D-III: Versailles' (19-1) only loss was to visiting Dunbar 79-70 on Dec. 22. Second-seeded Bethel (18-3) clinched an outright Cross Country Conference title by beating Tri-Village 73-63 last Friday. Brookville (17-3) has lost twice to Franklin in the Southwestern Buckeye League and is the No. 3 seed.
D-IV: Russia (15-4) led a sweep of Piqua top seeds by Shelby County League rivals that included No. 2 seed Fairlawn (17-3) and No. 3 seed Fort Loramie (16-4). Russia and Loramie are in the same bracket, meaning they should meet in a sectional final.
Southeastern (19-1) was the top choice at Troy and Tri-Village (13-6) was seeded second. Southeastern’s only loss was to visiting Tri-Village 57-55 in the opening week. Among Versailles’ wins is a 61-56 decision of Tri-Village in Flyin’ to the Hoop.
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