Girls basketball regional semifinal Rapid Reaction

The seeding of the Milwaukee schools was a hot topic after the seeding was announced, and it will likely continue after several of the MPS teams to receive high seeds went out in regional semifinals.

That includes top-seeded Milwaukee Vincent in Division 2, who lost to #8 Cedarburg 77-34 in a blowout.

In Division 3, top-seeded Denmark went down to eighth-seeded Freedom 59-54 in overtime. Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising, however, as Freedom beat Denmark less than two weeks ago.

Higher-seeded home teams went 137-23 in the regional semifinal games, a winning percentage of 85.6%. This comes after higher-seeded teams went 115-23 in the first round (83.3%).

Lowest-seeded teams still remaining:

The overall average margin of victory was 24.6 points, down from the 28.7 in round one. That includes some sizable blowouts, which are common in girls basketball as the gap between the top teams and the rest of the field widens. A total of 31 games were decided by at least 40 points, with 15 coming by at least 50 points, seven by at least 60, and two by at least 80.

Amazingly enough, the total margin of victory in round two was 3,939…the exact same total from round one, though there were 160 games in round two as opposed to round one.

It wasn’t just higher seeded home teams winning by sizable margins, as #14 Racine Case went on the road and beat #3 Milwaukee Pulaski co-op 86-21. Eighth-seeded Cedarburg downed #1 seed Milwaukee Vincent 77-34. #14 Menomonee Falls also defeated #3 Milwaukee King 70-32.

On the other end of the spectrum, there were 35 of the 160 games played that were decided by single digits, including four, one-point victories. 11 other games were decided by three or less points.

We lost the first defending state champion from last year, with four of the five advancing through to regional final play.

Below are the top five regional final games in each division based on the Bound Power Index. Numbers for each team indicate WIAA seed.

Division 1
Hortonville at Stevens Point
Hudson at Notre Dame
Bay Port at Kimberly
De Pere at Eau Claire Memorial
Madison Memorial at Waunakee

Division 2
Wisconsin Lutheran at Pius XI Catholic
Beaver Dam at Grafton
Medford at Rice Lake
West De Pere at Fox Valley Lutheran
DeForest at Milton

Division 3
Bloomer at Wittenberg-Birnamwood
Racine St. Catherine’s at Milwaukee Academy of Science
Elk Mound at Saint Croix Central
Platteville at Lancaster
Watertown Luther Prep at Kettle Moraine Lutheran

Division 4
McDonell Central at Neillsville
Fall Creek at Regis
The Prairie School at Dominican
Bonduel at Saint Mary Catholic
Darlington at Deerfield

Division 5
Barneveld at Shullsburg
Columbus Catholic at Pacelli
Wauzeka-Steuben at Argyle/Pecatonica
Assumption at Almond-Bancroft
Gilman at Eleva-Strum