North, West G earn top seeds in tournaments

The high school girls basketball postseason table is set.

Two area teams — North and West Geauga — earned the No. 1 seeds in their respective tournament brackets, which were released the afternoon of Feb. 2. Surprisingly, defending district and regional champion Cornerstone Christian settled for the second seed in the Division IV tournament at Grand Valley.

Here is a breakdown of the brackets.

• In the Division I sectional-district at Perry, the Rangers received the top seed followed by Cleveland Heights, Brush and Mentor.

The Rangers were the district champion last season, advancing to the Canton Regional championship game.

Coach Paul Force’s team received a first-round bye. The Rangers will open against the winner of eighth-seeded Madison and ninth-seeded South at 7 p.m. on Feb. 20. The Blue Streaks and Rebels play at 1 on Feb. 15.

Other first-round matchpus on Feb. 15, with seed in parenthesis, are Chardon (5) vs. Lakeside (12), Euclid (7) vs. Shaker Heights (10) and Mayfield (6) vs. Riverside (11).

Brush plays the winner of Mayfield-Riverside and Cleveland Heights plays the winner of Euclid-Shaker Heights, both on Feb. 20.

• In the Division II sectional-district at Lakeside, West Geauga is the top seed, followed by Perry, Geneva and NDCL.

First-round games on Feb. 15, with seed in parenthesis, included Harvey (8) vs. Glenville, NDCL (4) vs. VASJ (13), Hawken (5) vs. St. Martin DePorres (12), Jefferson (7) vs. Edgewood (10), Geneva (3) vs. Shaw and Gilmour (6) vs. Lake Catholic.

West Geauga plays the winner of Harvey and Glenville, while Perry plays the winner of Jefferson and Edgewood. Both games are Feb. 20.

• In the Division II sectional-district at Nordonia, Laurel is the top seed, followed by CVCA, Cleveland Central Catholic and Akron SVSM.

There are four area teams in the tournament: Chagrin Falls, Beaumont, Beachwood and Kenston.

Chagrin Falls (8) plays Trinity (9), Beachwood (13) plays Akron SVSM (4) and Beaumont (5) plays Streetsboro and Kenston (6) plays Orange (11), all on Feb. 15.

• In the Division III sectional-district at Cortland Lakeview, Champion is the top seed, followed by Garrettsville, Kirtland and LaBrae.

In tournament openers on Feb. 19, Cardinal (10) plays Crestwood (7) and Berkshire (6) plays Conneaut (11).

On Feb. 22, Kirtland plays the winner of Berkshire and Conneaut.

• In the Division III sectional-district at Elyria Catholic, host Elyria Catholic is the top seed, followed by Independence, Lutheran East and Wellington.

The only area team in the field is Wickliffe. The ninth-seeded Blue Devils play Brookside (8) on Feb. 19.

• In the Division IV sectional-district at Grand Valley, defending district and regional champion Cornerstone Christian is the second seed. Maplewood is first, followed by Cornerstone, AOA and Bristol.

First-round matchups on Feb. 19 that include area schools are Newbury (10) vs. St. John (7) and Fairport (6) vs. Brookfield (11).

Cornerstone hosts the winner of St. John and Newbury on Feb. 22, while AOA hosts the winner of Fairport and Brookfield the same day.