All three teams open tournament play this week as first-round favorites. Meadowdale, the No. 3 seed in Division III, meets No. 15 Triad (a 46-43 winner over No. 16 Northeastern on Monday) at 6 p.m. Thursday at Vandalia Butler. Ponitz is seeded fourth in Division II and faces No. 14 Graham at 7:30 Friday at Springfield High School. Dunbar is the No. 6 seed in Division II and faces No. 19 Bellefontaine at 1 p.m. Saturday at Springfield.
Girls Division I: Greater Western Ohio Conference rivals Springboro and Miamisburg advanced and will face each other for a third time this season with a trip to the district final at stake.
Second-seeded Springboro defeated No. 14 Springfield 60-36 at Troy behind 16 points apiece from Bryn Martin and Haley Crozier. Sixth-seeded Miamisburg knocked off No. 10 Troy 65-58 at Piqua behind 30 points from Anna Long. The Panthers (19-5) and the Vikings (14-7) meet at 6 Monday at Troy. The winner would likely meet Mason, the No. 2 seed in the Cincinnati sectionals, in the district final.
The Panthers and Vikings split their two meetings, and the Panthers won 52-45 on Feb. 5.
Division II girls: Top-seeded Carroll rolled to a 48-21 win over No. 13 Kenton Ridge at Tecumseh. The Patriots (10-14) were led by Sarah Ochs with 21 points and will face No. 7 Eaton at 7:30 Monday at Tecumseh in the district semifinals.
Seventh-seeded Eaton (11-13) opened with a win over No. 3 Ben Logan and defeated No. 5 Urbana 68-53 on Tuesday to reach the district semis for the fourth straight year. Ali Mowen became Eaton’s career assists leader against Urbana with 333. She surpassed Autumn Whirley who set the record in 2015.
Girls Division III: Waynesville, Anna and Miami East advanced to district semifinals.
Second-seeded Waynesville (19-4) thumped No. 17 Dayton Christian and will face No. 6 Anna, a 41-24 winner over No. 13 Carlisle, at 2 on Saturday at Northridge.
Fifth-seeded Miami East slipped past No. 17 West Liberty-Salem 26-23 and will next face No. 3 Greenon, an 80-38 winner over Meadowdale, at 6 on Saturday at Covington.
Girls Division IV: Two of the four district semifinals are set. No. 2 Russia handled No. 10 Riverside 61-10 and will face No. 7 Jackson Center at noon Saturday at Sidney. Jackson Center upset third-seeded Botkins 53-22.
Covington, the No. 2 seed at Trotwood-Madison sectional, beat No. 9 Troy Christian 53-34 and will face No. 5 Bradford at 11 a.m. Saturday. The Railroaders upset No. 3 Springfield Catholic Central in double overtime on Tuesday.
Boys Division III: Bethel and Arcanum won first-round games Tuesday to set up second-round challenges against higher seeded teams.
Bethel (10-13), the 13th seed, defeated No. 14 Dixie 47-42 and will face Three Rivers Conference rival No. 8 Miami East (15-6) at 6 next Wednesday at Butler. The teams split two meetings this season.
Arcanum (14-7), seeded 11th, handled No. 12 Carlisle 58-43 on Tuesday. Next up is No. 6 Indian Lake (14-8) at 5:30 Tuesday at Northmont.
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