The top teams will play early in 2011: West Liberty-Salem and Greeneview play on Tuesday; Catholic Central and West Liberty-Salem play on Jan. 7; Greeneview and Catholic Central play on Jan. 15.
Urbana vs. Graham: These two teams look like the best in the Central Buckeye Conference Mad River Division. Graham has won the past three titles, and Urbana has finished second twice. They play each other for the first time Jan. 7.
The Kenton Trail race will be close: No team in the CBC Kenton Trail is undefeated. Bellefontaine (3-0) is the last team undefeated in division play. Shawnee (2-1) and Tippecanoe (2-1) look like contenders.
A short, 10-game division schedule makes every game that much more important.
Fantastic stats: By now, it’s not a fluke. Can they keep it up?
Zach Stillings (Urbana) averages 3.7 blocks per game. Ronnie Drinnon (Greeneview) averages 11.2 rebounds. Kevin Stewart (Emmanuel Christian) averages 4.0 steals.
Mark Schwitzgable (Northeastern) has made 92.3 percent (24-for-26) of his free throws and Derek Tincher (Shawnee) has made 91.7 percent (22-for-24).
Back in Springfield: The area Division II teams will play sectional tournament games at Springfield High School. The tournament was a huge success last season, when Graham played Tippecanoe and Kenton Ridge played Shawnee for sectional titles in front of capacity crowds. The sectional tournament begins Feb. 21 for all schools.
And other brackets will be played at high schools, too: No more will early sectional games be played at UD Arena or the Nutter Center. Early tournament games will be held at area high schools, and some sectional finals will move to the larger arenas.
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