Trenton earns top seed in Mercer County Tournament
The Trenton High boys basketball team will pursue its first county championship since 2008 as a No. 1 seed.
The Tornadoes (22-1) were awarded the top seed in the Mercer County Tournament on Tuesday and will face No. 8 Princeton Day School (8-11) at 1 p.m. in Saturday’s quarterfinals.
The other three quarterfinals have No. 2 Ewing (19-2) hosting No. 7 WW-P South (13-10) at 1:30, No. 3 Notre Dame (14-7) hosting No. 6 Nottingham (16-6) at 5 and No. 4 Robbinsville (14-8) hosting No. 5 Hamilton West (14-7) at 3.
Typically the MCT features all the CVC teams along with PDS and Pennington (for boys basketball) from the prep ranks, but all the sports have switched to an eight-team format along with a consolation bracket.
Since the MCT began in 1982 for boys basketball, Trenton has won the title five times (1982, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008).
Ewing has won it three times (1983, 1984, 2011) and has arguably the best chance of any team to knock off Trenton.
Trenton won at Ewing in the regular season Jan. 31, 62-54, and has won seven in a row overall since suffering its only loss Jan. 21 against Newark East Side.
The Tornadoes stated their case as the top Group IV team in the state when they upset St. Thomas Aquinas on the road Monday night, 81-70, to become New Jersey’s first team to reach 22 wins.
Among the other quarterfinalists, Nottingham is traveling to face Notre Dame despite winning two more games than the Irish and beating them head-to-head Jan. 17, 75-67.
Hamilton and Robbinsville, meanwhile, will have a rematch of their Dec. 16 season opener that Robbinsville won on the road, 5146. But the Ravens will need more role players
Trenton’s Calvin Moore (2) drives to the basket against Ewing during a CVC boys basketball game at Emil Wandishin Gym in Ewing.
to step up this time as they have been without one of their top guards due to injury since mid-January.
The Ewing/South winner will face the Notre Dame/Nottingham winner next Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. at Trenton’s CURE Insurance Arena.
The Trenton/PDS winner will take on the Robbinsville/Hamilton winner at approximately 7:30 later that night.
The semifinal winners will meet back at the CURE Insurance Arena next Thursday at 7 p.m.