Cougars bowed to Washington; Bulldogs were next
The Class AAA segment of West Virginia’s Region 2 had only seven teams that were placed in two different Sectionals.
Placed in one Sectional were Hampshire, Washington and Jefferson – all teams with losing records as Hampshire posted two wins this year, Washington was four games below .500 and Jefferson finished with an 8-13 regular season mark. The other Sectional had Martinsburg, Musselman, Hedgesville and Spring Mills.
Martinsburg was 17-5 in the regular season. Musselman was also 17-5, Hedgesville was 14-7 and Spring Mills checked in with a losing record. The teams in each Sectional of Region 2 were seeded.
Martinsburg crushed Spring Mills 86-32 in one first round game and homestanding Musselman eased by Hedgesville, beating the Eagles for the third time this season. In the Sectional championship game, Martinsburg edged the Applemen in two overtimes to earn a home game in its one-game Regional.
Washington, by virtue of its two regular season wins over Jefferson, had the top seed in the other Sectional. Hampshire had to travel to Shenandoah Junction to face Jefferson in a first-round pairing. Jefferson defeated Hampshire for the third time this season and played at Washington last Friday.
The Patriots defeated the Cougars, 61-49, to earn a home game in its one-game Regional against Musselman, a team that had twice beaten the Patriots in the regular season. The winners of the Jefferson at Martinsburg and Musselman at Washington games both advance on to the eight-school state tournament in Charleston.
In its two games against Jefferson this season, Martinsburg posted wins of 95-50 and 92-37.
Should the Cougars have lost again to the Bulldogs, Jefferson would complete its 2017-18 with a 9-14 overall record. Should Jefferson have pulled off the monumental upset, it would advance to the state tournament. That Regional game was played on Tuesday.
The eight teams advancing to the Class AAA state tournament will be seeded once all the Regional qualifiers are known.