Boys’ and Girls’ Basketball Teams Prepare for Districts at Home
Brooke Highmark leads her team in scoring for the year. She’ll have to play well for the Wildcats to make a run.
It’s the perfect storm. On both of our basketball team’s best seasons in years, Westminster also happens to be hosting the Class 4 District 4 tournament.
The District tournament began on Saturday, but neither Westmister team played. Due to receiving the top seed in both tournaments, both the boys and the girls teams received first round byes. Now, the girls will play on Monday and the boys will play on Tuesday.
The girls finished with a regular season record of 22-4. They received the top seed in the bracket despite the fact that Rockwood Summit had a record of 20-2 at the time of seeding. This was largely due to the fact that Summit had only two wins against ranked large schools while the Wildcats had six.
They finished their regular season last week with a dominant victory over the Borgia Knights, the team they’re now slated to take on in the next round.
Borgia finished the season with a record of 15-9. Their 25-point destruction at the hands of Westminster last week was their worst loss of the season. On Saturday, they defeated Visitation handily. This game should not be a close one. At this point in the year, the girls are locked in. This is performance time.
On the boys’ side, performance has been dominant throughout the year. The Wildcats haven’t lost since January 9. They’ve won 15 straight on the way to a record of 21-4.
After also receiving a first round bye, the Wildcats will also take on Borgia in their opening round of the postseason. The rest the Wildcats received over the weekend was invaluable, especially as Brennan Orf has been suffering from pain in his hips. After having almost an entire week to recover, he’s much more likely to feel refreshed and ready for the upcoming playoff run.
Brennan Orf has been a three-year varsity starter. Any game now could be his final one.
On the boys’ side, the Knights of Borgia finished their regular season with a record of 13-12. Their leading scorer is a 6’2” senior guard who averages 14 points per game. They have a forward listed at 6’6”, but he’s only managed 4.2 rebounds per game, an unimpressive sum for someone so tall.
These opening games of district play are, like it or not, mostly formalities. It would take a tragedy for either of our teams to fall to either of these Borgia teams. However, a challenge will come in the District finals.
It’s most likely that the girls will have to play Rockwood Summit and the boys will have to play Priory in the District Championship games. These games will be true tests for the Westminster basketball teams, and if they win those, they’ll have legitimate shots at making deep runs in the state tournament.
In any case, the Westminster Arena will be rocking on Monday for the girls, Tuesday for the boys, and for the championship games on Thursday. At possibly the most opportune time ever, the Cats are hot.
