Great Girls Game Shows Problems with High School Playoff Pairings

I saw a great high school basketball game last night between the Reynolds Demons and the Dudley Panthers. There were only two problems with the game - one is that this was a district game and it should have been a regional game, featuring two teams that should have met later in the playoffs. And the other is that I only had 300 words to write about it for the newspaper.

The first problem is that the NCHSAA sets up the playoffs with the goal of reducing travel for as many schools as possible. On the surface, this is a good thing as it helps keep costs down. Plus, really, should kids be riding on a bus for three hours each way on a school night?

But the down side is that if good teams are clustered in certain areas, they meet early in the playoffs and deserving teams lose while teams of lesser quality get to advance.

I was there to cover Dudley, a team which was 24-1 coming into the game. The Panthers' only loss this season was in an out-of-state game against California's Mater Dei, currently the third-ranked girls team in the country, according to MaxPreps.

Many people were upset when the playoff pairings came out because Dudley was on a collision course with the Butler Bulldogs, currently the 17^th-best team in the country and the top-ranked team in North Carolina. Dudley is ranked as the fourth-best team in the state and the third-best in the 4-A class.

Dudley and Butler should be meeting two rounds later, in the West Regional finals.

It turns out that Dudley had a tough game even before Butler, as Reynolds gave it everything it could handle.

Before the game, I chatted with the parents of one of the Reynolds players. I asked the parents about their record and they said it was misleading because they lost four games to the same school. Also, Reynolds played Dudley in its first game of the season and suffered a 14-point loss.

Early, it looked like it was going to be a repeat of the first game, as Dudley was hitting shots from all over the court and it was hounding Whitney Knight, the best player on Reynolds. Knight, who is drawing interest from all of the big colleges in North Carolina, as well as Baylor, scored 18 points in the first matchup with Dudley.

This time, the Panthers made sure to give her extra attention. She was picked up full court and was defended by numerous players, so no one player got worn out trying to cover her. Knight is an excellent ball handler and she also doubled as the tallest player on the court. But Dudley's defensive scheme was to make other players beat them and Knight was held scoreless in the first quarter.

The Panthers got nine three-pointers in the first 20 minutes of the game, by six different players, as they successfully attacked the Demons' 2-3 zone. Midway through the third quarter, Dudley enjoyed a 14-point lead and it looked like the rout was on.

But Reynolds turned up the defensive pressure and surprisingly that flustered the Panthers. The Demons closed the third quarter on a 7-0 run and continued the momentum in the fourth. A follow-shot by Ashton Fleming made it a tie game with a little over four minutes to play.

Turnovers were killing the Panthers, a surprise since Dudley typically has five players on the court capable of handling the ball. The Panthers scored just three points in the fourth quarter, all of which came from Ebony Goins.

With 2:46 remaining and the score tied, Dudley coach Frank McNeil had his team hold the ball. After the game he explained he did it to force Reynolds out of its zone, figuring his players would have the advantage once the Demons switched to man. But Reynolds was content to let Dudley milk the clock.

The move paid off for the visitors, as Reynolds took possession after a held ball with 10.1 seconds remaining. But the Demons were unable to get a shot off and the game went into overtime.

Late in the second half, players on the Reynolds bench were fanning the starters during breaks in the action, as the Demons essentially played six players compared to eight for the Panthers. Reynolds ran out of gas in overtime, as it scored just three points and went 1-3 from the foul line.

The Panthers did not fare much better, but Goins came up big in the extra period, with four points before leaving the game with an injured leg. She nailed both of her free throws, the latter giving Dudley a 50-49 lead with 34.4 seconds remaining.

Reynolds had chances to tie or take the lead but simply could not put the ball in the basket. Desiree Drayton also had a big block near the basket in the final seconds. Kiera McIvor hit one of two free throws with 9.1 seconds remaining for the final score.

It was a great game and it set up the game everyone wanted to see, as Dudley now travels to Butler for the showdown on Friday.

But it is hard not to feel sorry for Reynolds, a team that probably deserved a better draw. Six of their eight losses this year came at the hands of two schools. They will be on the sidelines as several teams with more favorable playoff paths advance to the third round.

There is no fair way to do seedings for high school basketball. Every system will have its problems and no matter how they do it, some school will feel slighted.

Still, it's hard not to feel bad for the Reynolds Demons, a team that should not have been eliminated in the second round. They played well enough to win against all but a few teams in the state and they should have had an easier go of it in the District Round. After Friday we will be singing the same song about either Butler or Dudley.

Undefeated teams in the state should meet in the fifth or sixth rounds, not the third.