NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — The 7A-West Regional Tournament table is set for the girls and boys teams from the Northwest Arkansas Conference. But where they will sit is still up in the air for many of the eight teams - four girls and four boys.
The regional tournament begins Tuesday at Alma High School with the Northwest Arkansas Conference teams facing teams from the Arkansas River Valley Conference.
On the boys side, Springdale Southwest ran away with the regular season title and the Cougars will be the top seed. They will play South No. 4 seed Fort Smith Chaff n Tuesday night at 7:45. Fayetteville Woodland, Springdale George and Rogers High have also qualified for the regional tournament but have games tonight that will help determine seeding.
The conference championship is the seventh for Cougars coach Stephen Price, who has been at Southwest for 32 years. All seven titles have come in the last 19 seasons.
Price said he can’t take all the credit fo r this year’s team.
“We have a group of players that have played a lot of basketball,” Price said. “They have had a lot of coaches growing up that have taught them about basketball and what it takes to have a successful team.”
Balance has been the key to Southwest’s success as eight difterent players have playedbig roles on the oft ensive and defensive ends.
Landon Jones and Brady Blackwell have provided scoring punch inside while Austin Fox, Braxton Jester, Andrew Davis and Gus Vitt provide solid defense and timely offense. Ricky Jones is a 3-point threat and Jordan Dennis can score inside and out.
“Our players have come to work hard every day and have done a great job of playing hard every time out,” Price said.
The Fayetteville Woodland girls can wrap up the top seed with a win at Bentonville Black tonight. A loss would send the Cowgirls to the No. 4 seed. Bentonville Gold, Southwest and Fayetteville Ramay have also secured bids to the regional.
Ramay girls coach Carol Koenig sees a wide openregional tournament.
“The North and the South conferences are extremely competitive this year and anyone can win on a given night,” Koenig said. “There is not a dominant team. Hopefully, we will match up well with our opponents at regionals and we will make it to the championship. If we get there, we have an awfully good chance of winning.”
Sports, Pages 8 on 02/21/2011