Saints, Spartans draw high seeds as District 3 releases girls playoff brackets
It’s been a rough season for the Berks Girls League.
Just three teams – Berks Catholic, Brandywine Heights and Wyomissing – survived the District 3 cut.
Even BCIAA finalist Reading High, which will play for the league championship Friday, didn’t qualify for the district tournament, which tips Monday night.
The Berks I champion Saints (18-6) and Berks III champion Spartans (22-2) earned first-round byes and home openers in Class 4A. Berks Catholic enters as the No. 2 seed, Wyomissing as No. 3. If each wins its first game they’ll meet in the semifinals.
The Bullets (15-8), the Berks IV runner-up, enter as the No. 6 seed in Class 3A and open at No. 3 Pequea Valley on Tuesday at 7. An opening-round win will send Brandywine to the PIAA Tournament for the second straight year.
All games through the semifinals will be played on the home court of the higher-seeded team. The championship games will be played at Giant Center Feb. 28 and March 2.
The Bullets were the No. 1 seed last season and with it earned one of four berths to the state tournament. They lost their semifinal opener, then beat Pequea Valley 54-40 to earn the No. 3 seed out of District 3.
Berks Catholic, which saw its seven-game winning streak ended in the Berks semifinals by Reading High, will open at Wolf Gymnasium Feb. 24. It will play either No. 7 Bishop McDevitt or No. 10 Bermudian Springs.
The Saints were also the No. 3 seed last year and made it to the championship game, knocking off No. 6 Big Spring and No. 7 Bermudian Springs before falling to top seed Delone Catholic 33-27 in the championship game.
Wyomissing, which plays Reading for the BCIAA championship Friday, opens Feb. 24 against No. 6 Middletown (17-5). The winner clinches a state tournament berth.
The Spartans entered last year’s tournament as the No. 10 seed in 4A and lost their opener at No. 7 Bermudian Springs, 77-48.
High Point (13-4) earned the No. 5 seed in Class 1A and will open at No. 4 Veritas Academy (18-4).
Four Berks teams finished with winning records but didn’t make the tournament field.
Berks I runner-up Wilson (15-9), which reached the league semifinals, finished No. 13 in the power ratings; the top 12 qualify. The Bulldogs, using practically an all-freshman rotation, finished strong, winning six straight before being knocked out by Wyomissing 43-35 Tuesday in the semifinals. Wilson was 6-7 at midseason.
Reading High (14-10) finished No. 14 in the power ratings; a late-season six-game losing streak knocked the Red Knights out of a playoff spot.
Fleetwood (11-10) finished No. 12 in Class 4A, where the top 10 qualify.
Oley Valley (15-7) had an outstanding season but was left out of the postseason. The Lynx improved by five games over last season and tied with Brandywine Heights for first place in Berks IV but lost the division tiebreaker.
The Lynx finished No. 9 in Class 3A, where the top six qualify. They were hurt by two head-to-head losses to Brandywine Heights (15-8), which made both the Berks and district playoffs.
Berks II champ Exeter (11-12), which improved by nine games over last season, narrowly missed cracking the district field. The Eagles finished No. 15; the top 14 qualify. One more win could have propelled them into the field. Exeter lost a pair of one-point games, to Garden Spot (3-19) and Muhlenberg (5-17).
