Home Local Sports Salesianum earns top seed in DIAA boys basketball tournament

Salesianum earns top seed in DIAA boys basketball tournament

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The Sals' Justin Molen shoots over Davis Bland of Tower Hill earlier this season. The Sals are the top seed in the state tournament, while the Hillers are third. Dialog photo/Mike Lang

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.

Owen Robinson of Caravel moves toward the Vikings’ Leamond Pearce in a recent game. The Vikings are the 11th seed, while Caravel is second.

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

Prince DeWitt drives down the lane for Saint Mark’s. The Spartans are the 22nd seed in the 24-team field.

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

Gabe Herling of Delmarva Christian is guarded by Matt McCarthy of Archmere.

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.