Blackman completed its impressive season with a dominating victory in the Tennessee state title game, assuring the Blaze the title of MaxPreps National Champions.
Courtesy photo
Though the high school season will continue through early April, the top spot in the Xcellent 25 is all wrapped up: It's the Blackman Blaze of Murfreesboro, Tenn.
The Class AAA champs put together an impossible-to-ignore resume on the way to the top spot — and here are some highlights:
*The only loss was to No. 2 Incarnate Word, 53-44, in the finals of the Naples Holiday Classic. But Blackman avenged that defeat with a 58-49 win later in the year in Kentucky.
*Blackman beat two members of the Xcellent 25 Top 10: No. 5 Rock Bridge and No. 6 Myers Park (the only loss for the North Carolina 4A finalist). The Blaze also knocked off No. 15 McEachern, the Georgia champ.
*Blackman defeated Ribault, the Florida 4A champion, in Florida, by 17.
*The Blaze handled Sparkman, the Alabama 6A finalist, twice.
*In Tennessee — in fact, in Murfreesboro — Blackman had to contend with powerful Riverdale, and beat last year's national champs three times. Oakland, another league opponent, was no pushover, but the Blaze knocked them off four times.
See the girls basketball playoff brackets from each stateSo even though there are some big games left (especially in California), the jockeying for No. 1 is over for this year. Congrats to coach Chad Hibdon and the Blackman Blaze, for a national championship that may be mythical, but would be very hard to disagree with.
MaxPreps Xcellent 25 National Girls Basketball Rankings presented by the Army National Guard
1. (Last Week 1) Blackman (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) 34-1It was over early in the Tennessee Class AAA game — with the score 2-2, Blackman went on an 8-0 run, and extended that lead to 31-16 at half. The lead eventually got to 24, and then the Blaze settled for a 65-44 final margin, the Tennessee state title and the No. 1 ranking in the country.
2. (2) Incarnate Word Academy (St. Louis) 27-1Abbey Hoff, Incarnate Word
Photo by Randy Kemp
Way back in December, Incarnate Word beat MICDS 65-56. Since then, the Mary Institute Country Day School has not lost, and in an odd first-round 4A pairing, what appear to be the top two teams in the bracket will meet again Wednesday.
3. (3) Regis Jesuit (Aurora, Colo.) 24-2Regis Jesuit rolled over one-loss Lakewood by 30, and moves into Thursday's 5A Final Four as the favorite. First up is five-loss Poudre, but either Grandview or Fossil Ridge would look to be a tougher opponent in Saturday's final.
4. (5) Windward (Los Angeles) 24-2Windward simply dominated No. 7 Mater Dei in the first half of their Southern Section Open game, leading 46-23 at the break. Windward coasted home after that, winning 61-46, but in the complicated California playoffs, Mater Dei lives to fight again. Windward, though, will have to get by the winner of Clovis West and Etiwanda March 18 to move on.
5. (6) Rock Bridge (Columbia, Mo.) 23-3Rock Bridge is rolling, as a 60-25 win over a solid Hickman team showed. The first two rounds of the 5A playoffs shouldn't pose a threat to a team that's played one of the toughest schedules in the country. Truman is 26-1 and presumably the biggest threat, but that matchup, if it happens, wouldn't be until March 22.
6. (7) Myers Park (Charlotte, N.C.) 29-1Myers Park has never won a state title, and when archrival Ardrey Kell went up 11-2 in the 4A semifinal, it looked like it would be another disappointing season — but a 22-0 run was enough to push Myers Park into the championship game Saturday against Southeast Raleigh, which hasn't lost to an in-state opponent.
7. (4) Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) 26-2Despite getting pounded by Windward, Mater Dei still drew a first-round bye in the Southern California Regional Open Division — but now there is no more margin for error. Any loss from now on will end the season for all the California teams.
8. (10) Riverdale Baptist (Upper Marlboro, Md.) 27-3After knocking off New Hope in stunning fashion, Riverdale Baptist won't play again until April when it's in the ESPN Rise Invitational.
9. (9) Neumann-Goretti (Philadelphia) 27-0Once-beaten Minersville proved to be just another victim of Pennsylvania's best, as Neumann-Goretti moves into the the quarterfinals of the PIAA 2A playoffs. The championship game is March 21.
10. (11) Whitney Young (Chicago) 29-3There was no doubt. Whitney Young dominated tough Marian Catholic 60-20 in the semifinals and then rolled over Rolling Meadows, 60-44, in the Class 4A finals.
11. (12) Bedford North Lawrence (Bedford, Ind.) 27-1Penn was 26-1 coming into the 4A championships, and were tied with Bedford North Lawrence 5-5. After that, though, it was all Bedford North Lawrence — the final was 51-41, but it really wasn't that close.
12. (13) Shabazz (Newark, N.J.) 29-1Shabazz struggled in the first half against New Providence, but eventually wore down its smaller opponent to win the North 2 Group 1 title. Next up is Weequahic on Thursday, a team Shabazz beat by 18 earlier this year.
13. (15) Manvel (Texas) 38-2Ameiya Jackson, Manvel
Photo by Jim Redman
Manvel and Duncanville split, on neutral sites, but Manvel won the second game — and the biggest (the state championship) — so Manvel gets the nod.
14. (16) Duncanville (Texas) 33-1Another great year for Cathy Self-Morgan and the Pantherettes, who came up one game short of yet another Texas title. Still, winning 105 in a row is a pretty impressive achievement.
15. (14) McEachern (Powder Springs, Ga.) 28-2McEachern had no trouble with Archer in the AAAAAA finals, and finished the season with an 81-62 win. That's 25 in a row for McEachern.
16. (8) Long Beach Poly (Calif.) 23-3Long Beach Poly will not have an easy road to the Southern California Open Division title. First up is Bishop's of San Diego, which has played a tough schedule and lost to No. 4 Windward by only four points on Feb. 1. Win that, and it's No. 7 Mater Dei. Win that, and most likely it's Windward.
17. (17) New Hope Christian Academy (Thomasville, N.C.) 32-1Players recover more quickly than coaches, but the heartbreaking loss to No. 8 Riverdale Baptist (sparked by a timekeeper's failure to start the clock) most likely still stings for everyone involved.
18. (19) Salmen (Slidell, La.) 32-1Things didn't look good for Salmen, down 15 in the Class 4A state title game against Easton — and 6-6
Kalani Brown (daughter of former NBA player Dee Brown) had not touched the ball on offense. But Salmen got Brown the ball, and she finished with 13 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks as Salmen came back in the second half to win, 56-48.
19. (NR) Princeton (Cincinnati) 26-2With losses only to No. 3 Regis Jesuit and Fairmont — a loss Princeton avenged in the Ohio playoffs — Princeton jumps into the Xcellent 25 with only the state title game left.
20. (20) St. Mary's (Stockton, Calif.) 25-4Last year St. Mary's slipped by Miramonte by one in the first round of the NorCal playoffs. This year, St. Mary's has injury issues and Miramonte has improved, so a win will be harder to come by — but a lot of teams have underestimated St. Mary's over the years, and a lot of teams wound up paying the price.
21. (21) Cosby (Midlothian, Va.) 25-0Stonewall Jackson beat West Springfield by 10 on March 1, and Cosby beat West Springfield by nine to advance to the 6A finals Saturday — to play 22-6 Stonewall Jackson. And Cosby struggled with West Springfield, leading by just one going into the fourth quarter, so the final could be closer than the records indicate.
22. (22) Clovis (N.M.) 29-0Miami girls basketball
Courtesy photo
Clovis rolled over Carlsbad in the Class 5A semifinals, but thanks to an upset by Volcano Vista (in contention for coolest school name in the Southwest), at least Clovis won't have to play Hobbs for the fifth time. And Clovis beat Volcano Vista by 15 already this year.
23. (25) Montini (Lombard, Ill.) 34-2Montini lost only twice this year — once to No. 10 Whitney Young, and also to Wheaton, by five. Montini later beat Wheaton by 30, and then thumped 32-2 Joliet Catholic in the 3A finals. No out-of-state opponents, though, limits how high Montini can rise.
24. (24) Miami (Fla.) 25-1Season complete as state champions, but we really don't know how good Miami might have been because it wasn't tested by out-of-state competition.
25. (NR) Eleanor Roosevelt (Greenbelt, Md.) 24-0The one-loss recorded for Roosevelt was actually a scrimmage — against No. 8 Riverdale Baptist — so the official mark is 24-0. Paint Branch is next in the 4A state semis.
Dropped out: No. 18 Christ the King, No. 23 Southwest DeKalb