The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
District preview
JerryHinnen
PUBLISHED: February 14, 2008
Yep, it's that time again.
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The playoffs start in earnest this week, with wrestling team districts beginning last night — Milan will have already moved on or been eliminated by the time you read this — and girls' basketball tipping off at the district level Monday.
Here's a breakdown of how our area teams might fare at their respective tournaments:
Boys' basketball: Like the rest of the season has proven to have been, it's going to be an uphill battle for Milan. The Big Reds have drawn Chelsea in their opening round for the second straight year, and while the Bulldogs aren't quite the one-regular-season-loss force they were last year, Milan hasn't been able to duplicate their winning-record success of 2007, either.
It doesn't help that Milan has been hit by the injury bug, with center Erik Gunderson out. But there are a couple of bits of good news for Milan. The Big Reds will be at home as tourney hosts, for one. Chelsea has already lost in one shocking upset this season when the team fell to previously winless Bedford Feb. 6. And if McGovern and fellow sharpshooters Brandon Duval and Lance Smith get white-hot from outside, the Bulldogs wouldn't be the first team to get bounced by a sudden rain of threes.
As for Saline, the Hornets will enter their district tournament with as strong as shot on paper as any team of the six in the bracket. Saline has already swept both Lincoln and Tecumseh, split with Adrian, and handled both Bedford and Monroe in their one meeting. Given that the Hornets appear to be hitting their stride, with six wins in a row and center Kyle Larsen scoring 20 or more points in five of those, they might even be considered the favorite.
But while Saline has reason to believe it could beat anyone in the field, the field would say the same of Saline. Lincoln has also improved and owns upsets over Dexter and Ann Arbor Huron. Bedford will be at home. Adrian already has one win over the Hornets. Both of Saline's wins over Tecumseh came down to the final minute.
The bottom line is that the entire tourney should prove to be a tense, wide-open dogfight, and it's anyone's guess who'll emerge.
Girls' basketball: A balanced and hungry Saline team has enjoyed a breakout season, but a district title remains a tall task in one of the region's most loaded districts in any sport. Four of the six teams will enter the postseason with double-digit victories: the Hornets are 13-5, but Tecumseh is 11-7 (and swept the Hornets), Monroe is 17-2 and Bedford is the SEC champs at 16-2 overall.
It's the Mules — a combined 10-0 against the rest of the field -- who will enter the tournament as the heavy favorite and will face Saline in one semifinal, barring a miraculous upset by Lincoln in the opening round.
The Mules defeated Saline by an average of 22 points in their two meetings, but both games were competitive in the first half until Bedford's advantage on the offensive glass wore down the Hornets. If Saline can hang tough on the boards and hit their outside shots, they can make the game close down the stretch. And perhaps a Mules team that hasn't played many tight games might struggle under the pressure.
The Milan girls also drew Chelsea, but unlike the Big Red boys the girls are getting healthier. Key point guard Lindsey Lammers has returned to lead the Big Reds in scoring in three straight games -- two of them wins -- while the entire team has played with a newfound confidence.
Chelsea is an eight-win team as of this writing, but hardly unbeatable. In fact, one of its losses came to the same Airport team Milan had on the ropes for three quarters last week without starting center Allie McAfee.
A district title is still probably beyond the reach of the Big Reds -- with state-ranked Ida likely waiting on the bracket's other side -- but it's not out of the realm of possibility for a season that started with 15 losses to finish with a win or even two (with so-so Erie-Mason awaiting the winner) in the playoffs.
Wrestling: As mentioned, Milan's team districts came last night, with the Big Reds matching up with Adrian in the semifinals and Tecumseh all-but-guaranteed to be waiting in the final. As with last year, when Milan faced the same scenario, beating Adrian would be difficult. But Milan entered with more across-the-board depth than last season and the task is more than doable if the Big Reds are at their best.
While stranger things have happened, getting by both the Maples and the Division 2 No. 5 Indians, however, looks at the moment a bit beyond the still-improving Big Reds' capabilities. But who knows?
Saline, however, has to enter Thursday's team districts 6 p.m. in Saline as the favorite. The Hornets are at home and dispatched all three potential opponents (Pioneer, Huron, and Lincoln) by no less than 16 points in their regular season meetings. But either Pioneer or Lincoln could make things interesting with an upset or two, and Saline wasn't at their best at Saturday's SEC tournament. If the Hornets perform at their regular-season level, they should win their second straight district title; if they don't, anything could happen.
Ice Hockey: Hockey has "pre-regionals" rather than "districts," but either way Saline has a four-team tournament also featuring Lincoln, Brownstown-Woodhaven and Bedford starting Feb. 25. The Hornets mercy-ruled Lincoln, but split a pair of one-goal games against Bedford (their first-round opponent) and fell to Woodhaven by the same margin.
Saline escaped with an overtime victory over the Mules in last year's playoff opener and might still be a slight favorite over Bedford based on their season-long performance. But with a couple weeks of regular season hockey still to be played and both the Mules and Warriors hungry to deny the Hornets what would be a fifth straight regional final appearance, there's no way to pick an actual winner among those three teams.
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