TCC tournament

Conference tournament goes to two tiers, division winners earn first-round byes, official seeding done Super Bowl Sunday

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

The Tri-County Conference basketball tournament will have a different look this year, one that expands the championship bracket to 12 teams and rewards division champions.

The tournament will be split into two sections rather than three divisions, a 12-team “championship bracket” and an 11-team “post-season bracket.” It will be seeded by conference officials on Super Bowl Sunday.

The championship bracket will be contested Feb. 13, 17 and 19, with the championship games on both the boys and girls side being played Feb. 21 at Washington Twp. Teams in the post-season bracket are guaranteed two games, but can drop the second if mutually agreed upon. 

All games leading to the championship bracket final as well as all post-season bracket games will be played at the higher seed.

The four division winner will draw first-round byes. All seeds will be determined by the NJSIAA power points standings after Saturday’s games, with some teams leapfrogging the one directly above them if they have the head-to-head advantage.

“They felt like we were cutting teeth between the 8 seed in the A bracket and the 9, 10, even down to the 11 seed, in the B bracket,” said Pennsville athletics director Jamy Thomas, who assists the TCC in the seeding process.

“There were a couple things at play,” he continued. “If you were that 8 seed in the A, often times you’d rather be the 9 seed in the B. It made it more competitive.

“We often didn’t have all four division champs in the A bracket – I think that happened last year – because of power points and they were basically like that shouldn’t happen. You should at least get something for winning your division.”

Based on the power points standings Wednesday morning, the projected bracket looks like this:

The four byes: 1. Deptford, 2. Kingsway, 3. Salem, 4. Overbrook.

Seeds 5-12: 5. Cumberland, 6. Williamstown (head-to-head over Delsea), 7. Delsea, 8. Timber Creek, 9. Penns Grove, 10. Clearview, 11. Woodstown, 12. Gloucester Catholic.

The bracket would have 8v9 playing the 1 seed, 5v12 playing 4, 6v11 playing 3, and 7v10 playing 2.

Seeds 13-23: Washington Twp, GCIT, Triton, Glassboro, Wildwood (head-to-head over Pitman), Pitman, Highland, Clayton, Schalick, Pennsville, Salem Tech.

And the girls projected seeds based on Wednesday’s power points standings are …

The four byes: 1. Gloucester Catholic, 2. Wildwood, 3. Glassboro, 4. Timber Creek.

Seeds 5-12: 5. Washington Twp. 6. Clearview, 7. Kingsway, 8. Delsea (beat Pennsville), 9. Pennsville, 10. Triton, 11. Woodstown, 12. Cumberland

Seeds 13-23: Schalick, Williamstown (beat Deptford), Deptford, GCIT, Clayton, Salem, Pitman, Highland, Penns Grove (beat Overbrook twice), Overbrook, Salem Tech.

Of course, it all becomes official Sunday,

“I think this will probably make it go a little smoother,” Thomas said. “Because you really only have the one cutoff between the two divisions and, honestly, power points should lock that down.”