MAAA Conference Tourney seeds are now set

By DONN ADAMSON\Daily Journal Sports Editor

PARK HILLS - While the Mineral Area Cardinals were posting a double-overtime victory over West Plains out on the court, the 24 coaches representing the boys and girls varsity basketball programs in the MAAA Conference were meeting upstairs in the Bob Sechrest, Sr. Fieldhouse in seclusion to seed their upcoming conference tournament and to make All-Conference selections.

After a couple of hours of deliberation, the seedings were announced to the media. For the tournament the Large-School and Small-School Conferences are combined into one making it a 12 team tournament.

The first-round games will start on Saturday with the girls games in the morning at Valle High School, and the boys games in the afternoon and evening at Ste. Genevieve High School. The rest of the tournament will be played at MAC starting on Monday evening. The top four seeds receive a bye in the first round.

All-Conference selections remain in their separate divisions, but will not be released until after the season.

Farmington, which had won first place in both the girls and boys Large-School Conference, received both No. 1 seeds. The Ste. Genevieve boys got the No. 2 seed and the girls were No. 3. The Fredericktown boys were seeded No. 3 and the girls were No. 2.

The Arcadia Valley girls received the highest seed for any of the Small-School teams with a No. 4 seed. North County took the No. 4 seed for the boys.

Saturday's girls games at Valle will start at 10 a.m. with No. 8 North County taking on No. 9 West County. At 11:30 a.m.. it will be No. 5 Central playing No. 12 Kingston. No. 6 Potosi will play No. 11 Valley at 1 p.m., and at 2:30 p.m. it will be No. 7 Valle playing No. 10 Bismarck.

Saturday's boys games at Ste. Genevieve will feature No. 8 Arcadia Valley playing No. 9 Valley at 4 p.m., followed by a game between No. 5 West County and No. 12 Kingston at 5:30 p.m. At 7 p.m. it will be No. 6 Central playing No. 11 Bismarck, and at 8:30 p.m. No. 7 Potosi will play No. 10 Valle.

West County, 10-0 in conference, received the highest seed for the Small-School boys.

“I'm happy with it. We're glad we're playing in the first round,” said West County coach Chad Mills. “We're trying to get as many games as we can. I'm hoping we get to play North County. Coach (Bill) Martin and I are good friends and it would be a delight to play against him and his team.”