Blog

By Jim Wieners

McCluer North Boys Basketball and Hazelwood Central Girls Basketball are the top seeds in the Class Five District Eight Tournament, scheduled to begin Feb. 22, and will take place at McCluer High School.

The District Championships will be held Feb. 25 at 12 noon for boys and 2 p.m. for girls. The Gym will likely be cleared between games.

McCluer North Boys, Hazelwood Central Boys and Girls and McCluer Girls will have a first round bye and will not play Feb. 20. The opening round begins Feb. 20 at 11 a.m. with a pair of girls’ games followed by a pair of boys’ games.

Hazelwood East and Normandy open the Girls Tourney Feb. 20 at 11 a.m. followed by a 1 p.m. game between McCluer North and Riverview Gardens. The Boys take over later that day, at 3 p.m. as Riverview Gardens and Hazelwood East play at 5 p.m. while McCluer plays Normandy at 5 p.m. The Gym will likely be cleared following each game.

The Girls semifinals will take place Feb. 21 as Hazelwood Central plays Hazelwood East or Normandy at 4 p.m. while McCluer plays McCluer North or Riverview Gardens at 6 p.m. In the Boys Semifinals McCluer North plays Riverview Gardens Feb. 22 at 5 p.m. while      Hazelwood Central plays McCluer or Normandy Feb. 23 at 5 p.m.

McCluer North (20-1 prior to Feb. 15), the defending Class Five State Boys Champions, can wrap up the Suburban North Conference title outright (6-0) with a win Feb. 16, 5:30 at Ritenour. Head coach Randy Reed — after the Feb. 2 win over Hazelwood Central, 79-69 — said the Stars, with nine seniors are meeting their goals. Defensively the Stars are “very good,” Reed said and he credits the man to man defense as “our bread and butter.”

Hazelwood Central (18-6, 5-1 Suburban North prior to Feb. 14) has more sophomores (six) than seniors (four). Speaking after the Feb. 4 win over Cardinal Ritter (64-63) at home in the Red Out Shoot Out head coach Josh Martin said the Hawks “got to play 32 minutes, get to value the basketball and be unselfish.”

McCluer (21-3. 4-2 Suburban North prior to Feb. 14) and, according to head coach Erwin Claggett, the Comets were “down to the wire” in the losses but “unable to close them out.” Following the Feb. 3 home win over Pattonville (77-49) said “we just got to be ready when playoffs start.

Prior to districts Riverview Gardens host Hazelwood East Feb. 18 at 12 noon

On the girls side Hazelwood Central (13-8 prior to Feb. 15) is the only team in the district with a winning record and will match 6-0 Suburban North records with Pattonville Feb. 16 in a 6 p.m. game at Pattonville, who plays Feb. 23, 7 p.m., in a Class Five, District Four game at Parkway Central against the winner of the Feb. 20, 3:30 game between Parkway North and Ritenour

CLASS FIVE, DISTRICT FOUR AT PARKWAY CENTRAL — Hazelwood West will play Feb. 20 in both girls and boys games.  West Girls play Parkway Central at 2 p.m. with the winner playing defending back-to-back champion Incarnate Word Academy Feb. 23 at 5:30. West boys play Pattonville at 5 p.m. with the winner playing Feb. 22, 5:30 against DeSmet. Championship games are Feb. 24 at 5:30 for girls and 7 p.m. for boys

CLASS FOUR, DISTRICT SIX AT JENNINGS — Trinity Catholic Girls open the tournament Feb. 18 with an 11 a.m. game against Beaumont with the winner playing Jennings Feb. 22 at 6:30. Trinity Boys play Sumner Feb.21 at 5 p.m. with the winner to play Soldan-International Studies Feb. 23 at 6:30.

McCluer South-Berkeley Girls play Sumner Feb. 18, 12:30 with the winner playing Soldan-International Studies Feb. 22 at 5 p.m. MS-Berkeley Boys play Beaumont Feb. 21 at 6 p.m. with the winner playing against Jennings Feb. 23 at 5 p.m.

Championship games will be played Feb. 24 at 5 p.m. (girls) and 6:30 (boys).

CLASS THREE, DISTRICT SIX–BOYS AT WHITFIELD — On Feb. 28 Lutheran North plays against Principia at 6:30 while North Technical plays Whitfield at 8 p.m. and the two winners face each other March 1 at 7 p.m. That winner plays for the Championship March 2 at 6 p.m. GIRLS AT PRINCIPIA — Game times and dates are not available but the likely start date for LHSN and North Tech will be Feb. 27.