The regional pairings are now set for the UK Healthcare Boys Sweet 16 coming up in March at Rupp Arena in Lexington. The draw for the pairings was conducted Monday afternoon.
This year’s tournament will be played March 20 through March 23
For the 2nd Region champion, it will be a Wednesday afternoon game at 1:30pm in the lower part of the Wednesday bracket against the champions out of the 16th Region. According to the latest RPI rankings, the top teams out the 2nd Region are Lyon County, Henderson County, and University Heights, while the top teams out of the 16th Region are Boyd County, Ashland Blazer, and Morgan County.
The winner of the game between the 2nd Region and the 16th Region will face the winner of the other Wednesday game between the 1st Region and the 5th Region in the quarterfinals. The game between the 1st Region winner and the 5th Region winner will be played Wednesday evening at 6:00pm. RPI rankings have the top teams in the 1st Region as McCracken County, Marshall County, and Murray, while the top teams in the 5th Region are Adair County, Elizabethtown, and LaRue County.
The other Wednesday games, which are the first two positions in the bracket, have the 14th Region (Hazard, Knott County Central, Breathitt County) taking on the 15th Region (Pikeville, Lawrence County, Martin County) and the 11th Region (Great Crossing, Lexington Catholic, Henry Clay) battling against the 8th Region winner (North Oldham, Woodford County, Oldham County).
The lower half of the bracket has these Thursday games:
4th Region (Bowling Green, Warren East, Warren Central) vs 13th Region (Harlan County, Bell County, Corbin)
10th Region (GRC, Campbell County, Mason County) vs 9th Region (Newport, Covington Catholic, Cooper)
7th Region (St. Xavier, Trinity, Manual) vs 12th Region (Danville Christian, Wayne County, Pulaski County)
6th Region (Evangel Christian, Fairdale, DeSales) vs 3rd Region (Daviess County, Owensboro Catholic, Butler County)
Folks in the Jefferson County area will once again be unhappy with the draw as the winners of the two Louisville regions could face each other in the quarterfinals.
Quarterfinals will be played Friday, March 22, with the semifinals and championship games to be played on Saturday, March 23.
Based on the current RPI rankings, the semifinals on Saturday could see matchups of Lyon County vs Great Crossing and Newport against St. Xavier.
