NEPSAC Pairings Announced
The annual NEPSAC tournament will begin on Wednesday with quarterfinal action in classes AAA, AA, A, B, C, and D.
Full brackets and post-season schedules can be found by clicking here.
In class AAA, top seeded St. Thomas More and second seeded Northfield Mount Hermon both receive byes to Friday's semifinals, but with Brewster Academy peaking at the right time, the Bobcats could very well be the favorites despite being just the tournament's third seed.
All 8 teams in the AA bracket have a legitimate chance to call themselves champions come next Sunday. Worcester Academy is the top seed, but they fell to second seeded Cushing Academy just last week. Third seeded Kimball Union has as good a chance as anyone, although they’ll have their hands full in the first round against a Vermont Academy team that is seeded 6th but playing their best basketball of the year. Marianapolis earned the 4th seed but will host 5th seeded Tilton and Wayne Selden as a result while #7 Brimmer & May and #8 St. Andrew’s are also dangerous.
Phillips Exeter has been on a tear in class A this season and enter the post-season as favorites. Seeds 2 through 7 could have gone any which way and so there will be some terrific quarterfinal games with Salisbury visiting Choate, Taft at Trinity Pawling, and Tabor at Milton Academy while Hotchkiss will meet Exeter.
Suffield Academy is the top seed in class B, but the Tigers have a tough semifinal match-up looming as they’ll take on the winner of Brooks and Beaver Country Day, if they can get by Governor’s. Cheshire Academy looks strong on the other side of the bracket, where they open against BB&N and then potentially face the winner of Roxbury Latin and Canterbury.
Stay tuned to the New England Recruiting Report throughout the week for play-off results and bracket updates in all six classes.
Wayne Selden