While March Madness is quickly approaching local high school basketball teams are preparing for a brief period of Frantic February as District Tournament play begins next Monday evening in the 48th District as well as across the state.

Both the McCreary Central Raiders and Lady Raiders will see their first postseason action next Monday as they play in a rare district tournament doubleheader at Pulaski Southwestern.

In the recent past the six games it takes to complete the boys and girls district tourney would be scheduled to be played one game per night for the Monday-Saturday week slated for district tournaments. This year however the schedule will have boy/girl doubleheaders in the first round with single games on Thursday, Feb. 25th for the girls championship and Friday, Feb. 26th for the boys finals.

Before the current agreement in which a single school host’s the entire tournament it would be played at the home of the higher seeded team for each given game and almost always as a single game. Prior to that it was often a blind draw that set up the pairings for the district tournament and often there would be a boys and girls game scheduled for each night of the first round. That arrangement went away with the theory of providing less bang for the buck, ie. charge admission for each district game separately instead of allowing one admission price to cover two games. Just maybe this years decision is a step toward being more concerned with providing a better postseason atmosphere for the games to be played in. There are other advantages however to the doubleheader schedule such as off an off night Wednesday which would allow a possible date in the case of the Monday or Tuesday night games being postponed due to weather. It also allows the coaching staffs and fans a chance to possibly see future opponents from the other 12th Region schools play in their district tournaments.

As has been the tradition in past tournament the top seeded teams will play on the first night allowing them an extra day of rest over their opponent in the championship game.

For McCreary Central this works out well for the boys and girls teams even though the girls do not have the number one seed but the fourth seed. Given that the fourth seeded team is always the opponent of the top seed it puts the Lady Raiders in the gym on the same night as the top seeded boys team and against the same opponent as the boys in Monticello.

In a very unusual girls regular season district race it was the Monticello Lady Trojans who came out on top by virtue of a two game sweep over rival Wayne County who ended with the same 4-2 district record as Monticello. Southwestern had the opportunity to take the number one seed by beating Wayne County in either of their two contests but the Lady Cards barely prevailed in each of the games. The Lady Warriors also lost once to Monticello and finished at 3-3 in the district. Had Southwestern have beaten Wayne to finish at 4-2 they would have taken the top spot by winning the tie breaker over the Lady Trojans.

For McCreary Central who finished fourth with a 1-5 record the Wayne Co. wins over Southwestern was the best possible scenario as it put Monticello, the team McCreary matches up best with by far, in the top seed where they will play the Lady Raiders on the neutral court of Southwestern in the first round. McCreary’s only district win came in December 55-50 win at home over the Lady Trojans. In the return game at Monticello the Lady Raiders lost a close 48-41 decision. In Central’s games with Wayne and Southwestern the Lady Raiders have not come any closer than twenty points in the four contests losing by a average 23 points in two games against the Lady Cards and by an average of 26 in the two contest’s with Southwestern. McCreary also faced the Lady Warriors a third time at the Pulaski County Christmas tourney. Southwestern won that game which did not count toward the district standings 58-31.

The Lady Raiders will look to their four starting seniors not only for leadership on the floor but also in the scoring column. McCreary is usually led by a combination of Holly Stephens, Kayla Morgan, Chelsea Smith and Candance Foster but far too often they get solid scoring contribution from two of those and little to nothing else from the others. For the Lady Raiders to pull the mild upset and advance to the Regional tournament they need their third and fourth scorers to put up somewhere in the 8-12 point range. In the Lady Raider win over Monticello on December 17 the three leading scorers put up 49 of the Lady Raiders 55 points. In the second contest, a 48-41 Monticello win the top four put up just 35 points. With a solid game from those who have proved they are capable of one the Lady Raiders will certainly have a shot at knocking off the Lady Trojans and getting to the 12th Region tournament for the first time in the careers of this years seniors.

For the McCreary Central boys basketball team getting out of the district with a win over Monticello may not seem to be much of a daunting task but the memories of two seasons ago should keep away the complacency that often accompanies upsets such as this would be.

In that season the Raiders came into the district tournament being played on thier home court with a 24-4 record against a Southwestern team that had won but four games. Thirty two minutes later the Raiders found themselves a point short with a season ending loss.

The empty feeling of that nightmare loss coupled with the sting of being so close to a dream come true last year should keep the Raiders focused enough to avoid an upset of the magnitude that would keep them from an appearance in the 12th Region tournament.

Though the Raiders have an impressive record including a region best 14-1 worksheet against other 12th Region opponents to go along with a list of wins over top 25 teams it’s what you do with your season on the line that defines how successful the season is.

For the Raiders this season is one where winning a district tournament would serve more as a trophy case stuffer and earning bragging right’s rather than gaining an advantage in the regional tournament.

In the regional tournament format the district winners are guaranteed a first round game with a runer up from one of the other three districts. Normally that is an advantage but this season it seems that every district has two relatively equal teams at the top and if things go as predicted a game against a district runner-up such as Mercer Co. or West Jessamine could be more trouble than a district champ such as Rockcastle or Pulaski.

In the end for McCreary it probably doesn’t matter as much as usual about who you play but in how you play for if they play up to thier capabilities for five games starting monday they could very well end up standing where no McCreary Central Raider has stood in the past 27 years.