Salesianum earned the top seed in the 2022 Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association boys basketball tournament, which begins on March 1 with eight first-round games. The Sals, along with the following seven seeds, will not play until the second round, which is on March 3.
The Sals finished with a record of 12-8, but six of those losses came in the season’s first seven games against some of the strongest teams in Philadelphia and Maryland. Despite losing those games, the Sals earned bonus points for all of them. In addition, they played perhaps the toughest in-state schedule in Delaware, and they added a win against Paulsboro (N.J.) at the end of the season that garnered them bonus points.
Salesianum will host the winner of No. 17 Laurel at No. 16 A.I. duPont on March 3 at 7 p.m. The Bulldogs visit the Tigers on March 1.
All three other Catholic high schools also grabbed spots in the field. St. Elizabeth is the 11th seed, and Saint Mark’s is the 22nd. That means the two rivals will meet in the first round at the St. E Center on March 1. The Vikings defeated the Spartans twice this season. Archmere is the 12th seed. The Auks will host No. 21 Caesar Rodney.
The quarterfinals will be played at the higher seed on Saturday, March 5. Two will be at 1 p.m. and two at 4 p.m.
Tickets for all games will be sold online only. They are available at https://gofan.co/app/school/DIAA.
The field:
March 1, 7 p.m.
No. 17 Laurel at No. 16 A.I. duPont
No. 18 St. Andrew’s at No. 15 Delmarva Christian
No. 19 Delmar at No. 14 Woodbridge
No. 20 St. Georges at No. 13 Smyrna
No. 21 Caesar Rodney at No. 12 Archmere
No. 22 Saint Mark’s at No. 11 St. Elizabeth
No. 23 Tatnall at No. 10 Seaford
No. 24 Delcastle at No. 9 Dover
March 3, 7 p.m.
Laurel/A.I. duPont at No. 1 Salesianum
St. Andrew’s/Delmarva Christian at No. 2 Caravel
Delmar/Woodbridge at No. 3 Tower Hill
St. Georges/Smyrna at No. 4 Howard
Caesar Rodney/Archmere at No. 5 Sanford
Saint Mark’s/St. Elizabeth at No. 6 William Penn
Tatnall/Seaford at No. 7 Appoquinimink
Delcastle/Dover at No. 8 Middletown
Quarterfinals at higher seed, March 5, 1 or 4 p.m.
Semifinals at the Bob Carpenter Center, March 10, 6:30 and 8:10 p.m.
Final at the Bob Carpenter Center, March 12 at 6 p.m.