The IHSAA announced on Sunday the sectional pairings for the upcoming boys basketball state tournament set to begin next week.
Crawfordsville will play Greencastle in the first round of the Class 3A sectional at Greencastle at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 28 while Southmont will meet Cloverdale in the first round of the Class 2A sectional at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 28 at South Putnam.
Western Boone and Frankfort will play at 6 p.m. March 1 at Greencastle followed by Lebanon and North Montgomery at 7:30 p.m.
Fountain Central drew a bye in the first round of the Class 2A sectional at Fountain Central. They will play the winner of Seeger and Carroll (Flora) on Friday, March 3.
Southmont beat Cloverdale once already this season when the Mounties won 83-69 four games into the regular season this year.
“I think our guys are excited about playing them,” Southmont coach Jon Sparks said. “I think they have confidence because we’ve already played them and won, but we’re definitely not counting out anybody in our sectional. These are all teams that could win. It’s nice to know our opponent and to feel good about playing them.”
Crawfordsville opened the regular season with a 54-38 win over Greencastle. A win this time would mean the Athenians would face Tri-West at 6 p.m. on Friday, March 3. The Bruins, who drew a first-round bye, beat the Athenians 76-63 earlier this month in the regular season.
“I din’t want to play Tri-West in the championship and I wanted to be their first game,” Crawfordsville coach David Pierce said. “If you’re going to win a sectional, you have to beat Tri-West. We’re excited about the draw, to be honest. Now we just have to execute and make it happen.”
North Montgomery made it a good game when they first played Lebanon a month ago. The Tigers beat the Chargers 76-65, but North Montgomery head coach Eric Danforth said it was just a few possession that was the difference.
“We played Lebanon well last month,” he said. “And as I recall, we lost their top scorer three times at the buzzer in the in the first three quarters, accounting for nine points. If we do a better job controlling that, and have a stronger game on the boards, the Chargers will have a great chance to come out on top.”