Published: February 25, 2008 10:44 am         

Allegany girls, Fort Hill boys get top seeds

CUMBERLAND - Three Cumberland teams were awarded first round byes in the Maryland 1A West Region Playoffs after the Maryland Public Secondary School Athletic Association announced its basketball playoff drawing on Sunday.

The Allegany girls team and the Fort Hill boys both earned the No. 1 seed in the West Sectional Playoffs, while the Allegany boys and Southern girls both drew the No. 2 spots. All four teams earned first round byes.

In the boys playoffs, which begin Saturday, No. 4 Mountain Ridge will host No. 5 Hancock, while Garrett County squares off with No. 3 Northern hosting No. 6 Southern.

The second round (Tuesday, March 4) will pit the Miners/Panthers winner at Fort Hill, and the Northern/Southern winner at Allegany. The second round winners will then play each other in the west section finals on Thursday, March 6 before squaring off against the east section winner at Frostburg State University on March 8.

The first round of the girls playoffs are set to begin this coming Friday when No. 5 Northern visits No. 4 Hancock, and No. 3 Fort Hill hosts sixth-seeded Mountain Ridge.

Monday's semifinal round will pit the winner of Northern/Hancock at Allegany, while the Fort Hill/Mountain Ridge winner will travel to Southern. Those winners will meet in the west section finals on Wednesday, with the section champ playing the winner of the east section on Friday at Frostburg State.

The 1A State Tournament, for both boys and girls, will begin with the semifinals on Friday, March 14, and end with the finals on March 15. The boys will play at the Comcast Center on the University of Maryland campus at College Park. The girls will play their tournament at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.