Sports
Prep Basketball Earns Top Seed in Div. One North
Danvers boys draw Greater Lowell in Division Three while Falcons' girls face league foe Salem in Division Two in tournament play.
Ranked No. 1 in Eastern Mass. throughout the season, the Catholic Conference champion St. John's Prep basketball team is the top seed in the 18-team Division One North Sectional field and has drawn a first-round bye.
The Eagles (19-1) begin their State Championship quest next Friday night at home (7 p.m.) with a first-round game against the winner of Tuesday's preliminary round match-up between No. 16 Billerica (10-10) of the Merrimack Valley Conference and No. 17 Boston Latin (11-11) of the Dual County League.
The Eagles' road to the Sectional title game won't be an easy one. They are in the same half of the draw as No. 4 Charlestown and No. 5 Central Catholic, which both finished the year at 19-2. Charlestown handed St. John's its only loss of the year in January while the Eagles squeezed past Central Wednesday night, 72-70. Those two teams seem headed for a quarterfinal showdown, meaning St. John's would face one or the other in the semifinals.
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Falcons' Boys Division Three North
Danvers (11-9), which won six of its final seven games under first-year coach John Walsh to qualify for the first time since 2005, is seeded seventh in the 10-team Division Three North draw. The Falcons begin tourney play at home next Thursday (7 p.m.) with a first-round game against Greater Lowell (10-10) of the Commonwealth Conference.
The Falcons are the only Northeastern Conference team in the bracket and figure to benefit from playing in a league made up of larger schools. Three NEC teams are in the Division Two North tourney and one is playing in Division One North. If Danvers wins its tourney opener, it would play a quarterfinal game at No. 2 Wayland (15-5) of the Dual County League on Saturday, March 5 (7 p.m.).
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Danvers Girls Division Two North
NEC South champion Danvers (15-5) is seeded fourth in the 16-team field and begins post-season play on Wednesday, March 2 at home in a first-round game against league rival Salem (7 p.m.). Expect the Falcons to be focused and motivated against the No. 13 Witches (12-10), who upset them in regular-season action in late January.
If Danvers advances to the quarterfinals, it will face either No. 5 Gloucester (16-6) or No. 12 Marblehead (11-9), who meet in another all-NEC first-round game. Danvers defeated Gloucester by three points to claim the league title last Friday and knocked off Marblehead earlier this month.
