Friday, January 20, 2017

Basketball Playoff Picture

The Webster County Highlander basketball team's path in the playoffs will not be easy but their performance against their sectional foes thus far show they are capable of a trip to the State Tournament in Charleston (all teams compete in the playoffs regardless of their regular season records).

The Highlanders are in Class A, Region III, Section 1, which includes these teams: Charleston Catholic, Fayetteville, Midland Trail, Pocahontas County, Richwood, and Valley Fayette.  Webster has beaten Midland Trail, Richwood, and Valley Fayette.  They had a close home game against Charleston Catholic but lost and played well for at least a half against Fayetteville before losing to them on their court.  Pocahontas County is not on their regular season schedule.

If the Highlanders win their section, they would play the loser of the Region III, Section 2 team, which includes Greater Beckley Christian, Greenbrier West, Meadow Bridge, Montcalm, Mount View, and Summers County.  Webster has Greenbrier West and Summers County on their regular season schedule in February.  If the Highlanders make it to the sectional championship but lose, they would face the winner in Section 2.  

As of now, none of the Section 2 teams have better than a .500 record.  Clearly, Section 1 in which Webster will compete in the playoffs is the tougher section so far this season.  Barring an upset, it is highly likely that the two teams from Region 3 that will advance to Charleston will come from Section 1.  Webster needs to get its act together now to have a good playoff seeding and at least one home playoff game.  Otherwise, the road to Charleston will be tough.

Since there are 7 teams in Webster's Region III, Section 1, this is one possibility of how that section would play out to be the section champion (teams would be seeded from 1-best to 7-worst):
--winner of teams 6 and 7 would play to face team 1
--winner of teams 2 and 5 would play to face winner of teams 3 and 4
--winner of teams 3 and 4 would play to face winner of teams 2 and 5
--whoever emerges as the winner from the 2, 3, 4, or 5 teams would then face team 1 (or the 6/7 team if an upset occurs) for the sectional championship
--under this scenario, all teams other than team 1 would have to win 3 games to be the sectional champ; team 1 would only have to win 2 games to be the sectional champ
--the WVSSAC has yet to release the actual playoff scenario for Region III

Fayetteville is certainly making the case to be the number 1 seed in this section, with Charleston Catholic and Pocahontas County battling for the second spot.  Webster at this point appears to be at 4, with Valley Fayette, Richwood, and Midland Trail contesting for the bottom.

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