The St. Elizabeth Healthcare girls 9th Region basketball tournament begins on Sunday with all four quarterfinal games played at Northern Kentucky University’s Truist Arena.
The semifinals follow on Friday, March 8 with the championship game set for Saturday, March 9 at 7 p.m.
Friday the tournament draw took place at Holmes High School and here are the quarterfinal matchups:
Sunday:
Highlands vs Notre Dame, 1 p.m.
Dixie Heights vs Ryle, 2:30 p.m.
Holy Cross vs St. Henry, 6:30 p.m.
Cooper vs Bellevue, 8 p.m.
Semifinal matchups pit the Highlands-Notre Dame winner against the Dixie Heights-Ryle winner while the Holy Cross-St. Henry winner will face the Cooper-Bellevue winner. The winners of those semifinal contests will head to the March 9 championship.
Cooper enters as the favorite, ranked No. 2 in the state and having won the last two 9th Region titles. They are currently riding a 29-game winning streak against 9th Region opponents headed into the tournament after their 45-34 victory over Ryle on Thursday night in the 33rd District championship. Dixie Heights, Holy Cross and Highlands also enter as district champions.
Holy Cross comes in as the hottest team in the tournament, having won 15 straight games and 20 of their last 21. Their lone loss was to No. 3 George Rogers Clark, 59-57 on Jan. 13. The Indians are ranked No. 4 in the state, have won back-to-back All “A” Classic state titles and could be the biggest force of resistance to Cooper.
Ryle will also present an obstacle and could very well see the Jaguars in the region championship for the second straight season. The Raiders have challenged themselves all season long, playing 15 of the top 30 teams in the state throughout the season so far. Like everyone else in the region, they’ve struggled to get past Cooper the past few seasons and have lost seven straight to their Union rivals. They’ve lost both meetings this season, 38-32 on Jan. 12 and 45-34 in the district final on Thursday.
From there, some solid spoiler candidates exist. Highlands has been on a roll since starting the season 1-4, having gone 20-4 since. Dixie Heights has been playing its best basketball down the stretch, 13-4 in their last 17 games with three of those losses coming to state ranked Cooper and Franklin County and one of the top teams in Ohio, Mount Notre Dame. Notre Dame has posted a 20-win season at 20-9, despite going 6-7 in their last 13 games against a very competitive schedule.
St. Henry and Bellevue will be the darkhorses, but the Crusaders are one of the better defensive teams in the region allowing 42.6 points per game while the Tigers have their most wins in a season in program history with 22 and sitting with a 22-9 record.
Here’s the current records for teams against the tournament field:
Cooper 5-0
Holy Cross 5-1
Ryle 3-2
Dixie Heights 3-4
Highlands 3-4
Notre Dame 2-4
Bellevue 1-3
St. Henry 0-6
Quarterfinal Head-to-head matchups this season:
Notre Dame and Highlands have not played this season, the last time they played was Jan. 8, 2021, a 49-37 Pandas victory. Highlands won the previous four meetings prior to that.
Ryle defeated Dixie Heights earlier this season, 56-38 on Jan. 5. The Raiders have won nine straight in the series, Dixie Heights last win came Jan. 5, 2018.
Holy Cross defeated St. Henry in the season opener on Nov. 28, 76-42. The Indians have won 23 in a row over the Crusaders, St. Henry’s last win coming Dec. 11, 2010.
Cooper and Bellevue didn’t see each other this season and haven’t played since Jan. 5, 2013. Cooper is 4-1 all-time against Bellevue.
