Ewing earns top seed for Mercer County Tournament
The Mercer County Tournament Association introduced the 2022-23 version of its girls’ basketball tournament Tuesday with a Championship Bracket for the top-8 seeds and an Invitational Bracket for its 9-16 seeds.
Both brackets will be played until each has one champion. Teams are guaranteed at least two games, meaning they will have either a consolation game or a semifinal for their second game.
Back in the fall, Princeton High athletics director Brian Dzbenski cleverly compared the new idea to having the NCAA Tournament and NIT running simultaneously in college basketball.
There are sure to be people who do not care for the new system, especially since it implies no team seeded 9-16 had a shot at winning the main county title in the Championship Bracket.
However, it does eliminate games , and it tightens the county tournament to three rounds .
Quarterfinal games in both brackets will be played at the higher seed. All games in the Invitational Bracket are also at the higher seed. Teams in the consolation games of both brackets are given until Friday, Feb. 17 to
complete their games at the higher-seeded club.
In basketball’s Championship Bracket, the semifinals and championships will still be held at CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton.
Ewing (21-2), which has not lost a Colonial Valley Conference game since Jan. 31, 2020, is the top seed for the girls’ Championship Bracket. The defending champion Blue Devils begin their quest for their fifth MCT crown Saturday at Emil Wandishin Gymnasium against the last CVC team to defeat them, eighthseeded Trenton (10-10).
By order of their seeding , Hightstown (18-5), the Pennington School (15-4), Allentown (14-3), Notre Dame (14-8) and Robbinsville (1110) round out the Championship Bracket’s field.
Ninth-seeded Steinert (13-7) leads the Invitational Bracket’s field followed by Princeton High (10-9), Hopewell Valley (7-13), West Windsor-Plainsboro North (8-10), Hamilton West (8-11), WW-P South (4-18), Princeton Day School (3-16) and Lawrence High (3-17), by order of their seeding .
This MCT format will be used at least for the entirety of the 2022-23 sports season, while future systems are being discussed.