By RYAN WALKER
DECATUR — The ACAC hosted its in-season tournament drawing at the Back 40 Junction Wednesday afternoon.
The longest-tenured conference tournament in the state will play for the 102nd time for the boys and 51st time for the girls.
Athletic directors, principals and boys’ and girls’ coaches joined ACAC President Steve Thompson for a lunch and a brief history of the tournament before drawing names from seven envelopes. Last year’s champs did the honors in drawing names. This year, it was Jay County girls’ coach Sherri McIntire and Adams Centrals boys’ coach Aaron McClure.
The names drawn on the bracket will mirror one another for the girls and boys with the bottom school hosting. The boys’ games will follow the host of the girls’ side.
The names were drawn in order of the bracket:
• Adams Central at Southern Wells. Winner to host Heritage, who received the only bye.
• Jay County at South Adams.
• Bluffton at Woodlan.
The quarterfinals will take place on Tuesday, Jan. 14, with the semifinal that Friday and the championship on Saturday at South Adams High School. The girls’ games will be first, starting at 6 p.m. The boys will follow with a 20-minute warmup after the girls’ game.
The only school in the county that was perhaps satisfied with the draw was Southern Wells’ girls.
The Raiders will play host to Adams Central. On Nov. 30, the Raiders dismantled the Jets 56-39.
Head coach Kyle Penrod, who has played and coached on the boys’ side in the past, understands that anything can happen in the tournament. He said that he’s glad to have film on the Jets with his own players and can compare what went well and what didn’t from their experience.
“Obviously, you don’t want to be overconfident,” Penrod said. “But with the girls, just having that confidence that they know they can win. If they start to expect to win, that’s a big thing … I’m pretty happy that we get to host it. We’ve had a lot of road games getting the host around, potentially host two rounds. That’s pretty good draw for us.”
The Raider boys, however, did not have as good of a result the first time around. They opened conference play with the Jets and fell 68-27.
First-year boys’ head coach Doug Smith was honored to be a part of the event Wednesday afternoon, and he was rewarded with the reigning tournament and regular season champion.
Smith understood the tough assignment, though was optimistic with a group of new players playing basketball this season.
“We played them once, and they just physically out-manned us, so we’ll be better prepared for that this time, but tall order for us,” Smith said. “Particularly being so inexperienced as we are, and facing their pressure. It’s been nice though, that every team we play plays full-court pressure since then. So, we’re more practiced at it than we were the first go around.”
Bluffton boys’ head coach Craig Teagle was unable to attend the draw, but if he was, he and Doug Curtis on the girls’ side may have been grumbling together. The Tigers drew a road game with the girls’ tournament runner-up and the boys got the regular season runner-up.
“Well, I’d much rather be home against anybody than traveling,” Curtis said.
Curtis would rather have played at home, but getting another shot at the Woodlan Warriors has to be a dream scenario for the girls.
Last season, Bluffton lost by 10 to Woodlan after defeating them earlier in the season. That was their ticket to the championship game.
There are key players all across the ACAC that graduated from last season, but Bluffton returned most of its production and is ready at another crack in the ACAC
Curtis said the motivation stems from not having any seasons listed on the ACAC Tournament in recent history, but also that they’ve leveled up in terms of their play.
“The way we play, we should make a difference what the adjustments (other) people make. We’re going to play our way we’re going to play. This year’s a little different than last year. Kids are better offensively and we’re going to be super aggressive and go after people.”
Last year, the Tigers took down Southern Wells in the opening round at the Raider Dome. They then fell on a controversial buzzer-beater at Heritage, where the Patriots shooter took a shot with no time left on the clock.
Now, Bluffton will take its quest on the road.
ryan@news-banner.com
