It’s going to be a wild Monday in the Western Highlands Conference.
The final evening of regular-season play will see both the boys and girls basketball conference titles decided, with the results also set to impact pairings for the conference postseason tournament that begins Wednesday.
The equation on the boys side is simple – Mountain Heritage travels to Hendersonville for a showdown to decide the WHC champion. Both teams enter at 10-1 in conference play for the season, with the Cougars taking a 60-55 victory in the teams’ first meeting in January.
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The loser of the encounter will face Polk County in Wednesday’s first-round matchup in the WHC tourney. That game will be played at Madison.
The scenarios for the girls regular-season title are much more complex. Avery’s 46-26 win Friday over Hendersonville created a three-way tie atop the WHC standings entering Monday’s games.
The Mountain Heritage at Hendersonville winner is guaranteed at least a share of the regular-season title. Avery could also earn a share with a win at Polk County.
What’s interesting is that depending on how tiebreakers sort out, Monday’s slate could be repeated in Thursday’s tournament semifinals. The Wolverines are already locked into fourth and will face either Mitchell or Madison in their first-round game. A win there sends Polk into the semis against the top seed – if that’s Avery, then it’s likely that Mountain Heritage and Hendersonville are in the other semi and it’s deja vu all over again.
The tournament will run Wednesday-Friday, with first-round boys games at Madison and first-round girls games at Mountain Heritage. All remaining games will be played at Madison.
