The Har-Ber Wildcats entered the Select 7-on-7 National Championship Tournament on Friday evening as the highest seeded team from Arkansas (10th). They have played like that as well as they are the only Arkansas team that remains in the winner's bracket.
Har-Ber defeated 23rd seed Captain Shreve (Shreveport, LA) 35-17 in the first round of the 32-team double elimination tournament. Many Arkansans may be familiar with Captain Shreve as they have been a fixture at the Shootout of the South in Little Rock until this year. In the second round, Har-Ber took out nationally known perennial power Evangel Christian (Shreveport, LA) in a nail-biter, 31-30.
The Wildcats now sit in the final eight of the winners bracket with a good draw as they are poised to take on 18th seed Jefferson County, who upset 2nd seeded Olive Branch 23-20. That game is slated for a 9:00 AM start. If they win, they will play the winner of 6th seed Arlington-Lamar (TX) and 3rd seed McGill-Toolen (AL), who defeated Lake Hamilton 30-21 in the second round. That game will be at 10:00 AM. Other schools left in the winners bracket include 4th seed and host school Hoover (AL), 5th seed Thomas Jefferson (PA), 9th seed Spain Park (AL) and 16th seeded Memphis University School, who upset #1 seed Prattville (AL) in the second round.
28th seeded Springdale lost their opening round game to Thomas Jefferson, 31-24. They will face Mt. Crest (UT) in the loser's bracket beginning at 8:00 Saturday morning.
Lake Hamilton drew the 19th seed by their record in pool play and narrowly defeated 14th seed Tuscaloosa County (AL) 30-29 before losing to McGill-Toolen in the second round. They will play the winner of Springdale and 21st seeded Mt. Crest (UT) in the loser's bracket at 8:30 AM.
Shiloh Christian played their way to the 22 seed in pool play and dropped their first game to Flowery Branch (GA) 31-20. They will face off against 27th seeded Pelham (AL) at 8:00 AM. If they win, they will play 7th seeded Evangel Christian at 8:30 AM. The irony is that these two teams will face off this fall in a regionally televised game in Week 1 of the regular season on September 5.
There are few things more brutal than playing your way through a loser's bracket after dropping a game in round one or two. In order to play for the championship, Springdale or Shiloh would have to reel off 7 victories in a row with one 30 minute break after their 4th game. Lake Hamilton is in a similar situation except they only have to win 6 straight. If they can manage that, then they must win two games against the winner's bracket champion who would have only played 3 games.
The championship game tomorrow will be at 12:30 with the if necessary game being directly after at 1:00. We will post a final update as soon as we receive the results.
Tournament bracket can be found at http://select7on7.com/2008brackets.pdf.
Friday, July 25, 2008
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