Schools
Madison Girls Basketball Seeded 15th In Morris County Tournament
Dodgers open with 18th-seeded Kinnelon in preliminary round Saturday.
If a tough schedule truly prepares a team for single-elimination tournament play, the Madison High School girls basketball team will be more than ready for what awaits them in the Morris County Tournament.
The Dodgers (7-7) were seeded 15th out of 27 teams by the coaches at their annual seeding meeting Sunday at Hanover Park High School. Madison will host No. 18 seed Kinnelon (4-7) in a preliminary-round matchup this Saturday at 5 p.m. The winner will travel to second-seeded Chatham on Feb. 6.
"We had goals before the season started," said Madison coach Steven Finkelstein. "We wanted to host a county tournament game. And then we wanted to win a county tournament game. We've got the first one down. Now we just need to follow through and win on Saturday."
The Dodgers will be familiar with the pressures of tournament play. By the time Madison plays Kinnelon on Saturday, the Dodgers will have played seven of the top 13 seeds, defeating No. 5 Pequannock and No. 8 Morris Knolls.
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But Madison could enter the tournament without senior leader and point guard Chelsea Davies, who suffered a head injury in Saturday's loss to Morris Hills. Finkelstein said he hoped Davies would return in time for tournament play, but that her status had yet to be determined.
The Dodgers' opening-round matchup with Kinnelon will be the first county tournament home game for any of the current seniors. A win Saturday would also be the seniors' first county tournament victory, and it would be helpful in the team's quest to qualify for the state tournament. Teams must be .500 or better by Feb. 6 to reach the state tournament.
Saturday's stumble against Morris Hills could make qualification more difficult, with regular-season games against Mountain Lakes, Parsippany, Pequannock and Morris Catholic looming in addition to Kinnelon and, if Madison wins Saturday, Chatham. The Dodgers must win three of those potential six games to qualify.
"It's going to be a tough road for us," Finkelstein said. "We're a team that is so up and down, and inconsistent. Our biggest hurdle is staying confident in ourselves. They hear it from me every day."
Still, despite a stacked schedule, Finkelstein noted that his team seemed to have earned credibility with their wins over Pequannock and Morris Knolls. To seed the tournament, teams are nominated for a certain seed and a majority of votes are required to place a team in that seed.
"Once we got past about the ninth seed, our name started coming up," Finkelstein said. "We were one of the few teams with wins against the top eight seeds."
The NJAC-Independence Division was well-represented among the top seeds, with Chatham, Morris Catholic and Pequannock all earning top five seeds and preliminary-round byes. Hanover Park was seeded sixth, drawing the 27th and lowest seed, Montville, in the first round.
The Colts play in the smaller-school NJAC-Liberty, along with teams like Mountain Lakes and Whippany Park. Kinnelon defeated 13th-seeded Parsippany on Dec. 28, but have struggled in league play, losing four of five divisional games.
Last year, Madison was seeded 18th, but fell to 15th-seeded Mountain Lakes in the preliminary round, 48-28.
2010 MORRIS COUNTY GIRLS BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT PAIRINGS:
Preliminary Round (games to be played by Saturday, Jan. 30)
#17 Boonton (5-7) at #16 Mendham (6-5)
#18 Kinnelon (4-7) at #15 Madison (7-7)
#19 Parsippany Hills (4-8) at #14 Villa Walsh (6-7)
#20 Morris Hills (3-9) at #13 Parsippany (7-6)
#21 Mount Olive (3-11) at #12 Randolph (7-4)
#22 Morristown (1-11) at #11 Morristown-Beard (10-4)
#23 Butler (1-10) at #10 Roxbury (7-6)
#24 Dover (4-10) at #9 Mountain Lakes (7-4)
#25 Morris Tech (6-7) at #8 Morris Knolls (10-2)
#26 St. Elizabeth (3-9) at #7 Whippany Park (10-2)
#27 Montville (0-12) at #6 Hanover Park (8-2)
First Round (games to be played by Saturday, Feb. 6)
Mendham-Boonton winner at #1 West Morris (10-2)
Madison-Kinnelon winner at #2 Chatham (10-3)
Villa Walsh-Parsippany Hills winner at #3 Morris Catholic (10-2)
Parsippany-Morris Hills winner at #4 Jefferson (10-2)
Randolph-Mount Olive winner at #5 Pequannock (9-2)
Hanover Park-Montville winner vs. Morristown Beard-Morristown winner
Whippany Park-St. Elizabeth winner vs. Roxbury-Butler winner
Morris Knolls-Morris Tech winner vs. Mountain Lakes-Dover winner
Quarterfinals (Saturday, Feb. 13 at Morris Knolls High School)
Semifinals (February, Feb. 19 at FDU-Florham)
Final (February, Feb. 26 at FDU-Florham)
