The Class 3A Region 1 tournament is underway in West Fork. West Fork High School is hosting the event that tipped-off today and will end on Saturday. Teams playing in today and tomorrow’s first rounds are playing to advance to the second round on Friday, and, more importantly, secure a bid in next week’s state tournament. The first three rounds of the 3A state tournament will be held next week at Lamar High School.
In boys bracket play, the fourth seeded Paris Eagles were matched against the number one seed, Bergman Panthers. Bergman, undefeated conference champions from the 3A-1 conference, were heavily favored against Paris. In the Eagles’ last outing, Paris dropped a semifinal game in last week’s district tournament with Booneville to drop to a four seed in this week’s regional. The Eagles were flat against a Bearcats team that they had defeated twice during the regular season. So Paris fans were anxious to see how the Eagles would react against a Bergman team that entered tonight’s game ranked number one in the state in Class 3A by some publications. The game would be a big challenge for Paris, and the Eagles were up to the challenge. Paris scared the top-ranked Panthers late tonight before dropping a heart-breaker in the regionals by the score of 50-45.
Good defense and timely scoring by the Eagles kept Paris within striking range throughout the game. Paris eventually tied the game at 41-41 with 6:09 left in the fourth quarter. But Paris was outscored 9-4 in the final minutes of the game resulting from missed opportunities on the last few offensive possessions of the game that helped Bergman survive to advance to the Region 1 semifinals on Friday.
The Panthers now await the winner of Valley Springs and Cossatot Riiver that will be played on Thursday. With the win over Paris, Bergman has locked-in a spot in the state tournament and will continue to compete in regionals to improve their seeding in the state tournament.
The Eagles’ season has come to an end, but the team can be proud of its runner-up conference finish in the regular season and its bid to the regional tournament.
The Paris Lady Eagles will now take the stage on Thursday night in their first round game with Flippin. Paris enters the game as the tournament’s number two seed, and Flippin as the three-seed. The Lady Eagles’ game with Flippin will tip-off at 4 p.m. on Thursday in West Fork. A Paris victory will advance the Lady Eagles to next week’s state tournament and to Friday’s regional semifinals.
Watch for photos this weekend from this week’s regional tournament on social media. Photos will be published on Facebook at Paris Eagles Sports.
Congratulations to the Eagles on a good season, and RNN Sports will be back in West Fork tomorrow afternoon to bring you the action from the Lady Eagles’ first round game with Flippin.
Stay with RNN Sports for complete coverage of River Valley post-season high school basketball action!
