SHEPHERDSTOWN — It’s finally tournament time in the high school basketball world.

Jefferson had a late-season, four-game winning streak, which stopped when it lost on the road to Hedgesville, 64-55, in its regular season finale.

The loss left the Cougars with a 14-7 record to carry into the postseason’s first stopover — the three-team Sectional tournament.

In losing its last games, Jefferson committed 15 turnovers and, despite 17 points from Will Shively, 12 from Jaiden Gladney, 11 by Jamari Jenkins and eight from Wyatt Shively, the Cougars won’t carry a win streak into the postseason.

Wyatt Shively contributed nine rebounds and Will Shively had eight rebounds in Jefferson’s second loss, in two regular season games against the Eagles.

In the Sectional, third-seeded Washington, with its 3-17 record, and second-seeded Musselman (12-10 overall) have just played a first-round game that will furnish Jefferson with its opponent tonight in Shenandoah Junction. The winner of the Jefferson versus Musselman-Washington survivor will be the Sectional champion and move on to the Regional tournament.

Jefferson easily tamed Washington both times the teams played in the regular season, winning by scores of 84-52 and 90-52. The same can be said for the two Jefferson versus Musselman games, in which the Cougars won 82-51 and 86-54.

Regardless of how it performs in the Sectional, Jefferson is guaranteed a place in the Regional.

A win in its one-game appearance in the Sectional would send the Cougars to a home game against the runner-up team from the Berkeley County Sectional. In Berkeley County, there will be three teams playing. Last-seeded Martinsburg will play at second-seeded Hedgesville, with the survivor of that game traveling to Spring Mills for the championship game.

Both the Sectional winner and the runner-up team will advance to the Regional with Spring Mills — like Jefferson — guaranteed a place in that event.

Both teams winning in the Regional’s two games will advance to the eight-team State Tournament, to be held in Charleston.

The eight teams qualifying for the State Tournament will be seeded, with the top seed facing the eighth-seed, the seventh-seed playing the second-seed, the sixth-seed seeing the third-seed and the fourth-seed playing the fifth-seed in the tournament’s opening round.

In its four-game winning streak leading up to its late loss to Hedgesville, the Cougars had wins over Washington, Spring Mills, Hampshire and Musselman.

Jefferson has to win in the Regional, to qualify for the State Tournament. Thankfully, it does not have to win in the Sectional to move along the tournament trail toward Charleston, where it went in the 2022 season.