District 3 final unofficial girls' basketball rankings posted
As promised, a rundown of District 3's final unofficial girls' basketball power rankings. We'll post brackets as soon as the district website posts them. A look at the boys' unofficial rankings can be found here.
Full girls' rankings:
Some highlights...
-- There will be one all-YAIAA matchup in the first round, and it should be a good one: No. 8 seed West York will host No. 9 Eastern York. The two teams met the opening week of the season, a game the Bulldogs won, 45-41. Both teams have greatly improved since then. The Golden Knights enter their YAIAA tournament game against Dover on Saturday with a 16-game winning streak. West York, meanwhile, rebounded from a 3-4 start to claim the YAIAA Division II title.
-- In all, five of the 10 YAIAA girls' teams to qualify for the district playoffs come from Class AAA. Besides Eastern and West York, Dover (7), Kennard-Dale (14) and Susquehanock (17) also made the field. The Rams and Warriors will both have to play in preliminary-round games next Friday.
-- After spending most of the season stuck at the third spot in the Class AAAA rankings, Red Lion actually moved up to No. 2 in the final release. You have to like the Lions as one of the favorites in their attempt to defend last year's district crown.
There's a chance they could see a familiar face in the second round. Red Lion will play the winner of No. 18 Dallastown and No. 15 Central Dauphin East.
-- Spring Grove (11-11) narrowly missed out on a Class AAAA playoff spot, finishing two spots outside of the top 20. York Suburban (8-13) also fell two places short of a Class AAA berth.
-- No surprise to see the one-two punch of York Catholic and Delone Catholic atop the Class AA rankings once again. The two teams, who met in the district final last year, may well meet on the Giant Center floor once again in a few weeks.
First things first ... the two could be looking a potential third round of their annual rivalry series as early Wednesday. If York Catholic beats Dallastown and Delone beats West York in the opening round of the YAIAA tournament on Saturday night, the two teams would then meet at Dallatsown in the league semifinals. The Irish and Squirettes split their regular season meetings, with York Catholic winning the most recent, 57-46.
Hanover rounds out the YAIAA teams to make districts, earning a No. 6 seed in the Class AA.