WIAA boys basketball road to state begins tonight

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The road to a state championship begins tonight for 482 Wisconsin boys’ high school basketball teams. Three-hundred-six of those teams will play their regional openers this evening. The rest have byes until Thursday – including all the returning champions and top-seeds in Divisions 1-4.

Division-Five – the one with the smallest schools – is the only one with a full field of 128 teams. That means Sheboygan Lutheran is the only defending champ to play tonight. Lutheran is seeded third this time, after winning the 2012 title on a last-second three-pointer from current Badger Sam Dekker. They’ll open against Oneida Nation.

Returning champions Germantown, Onalaska, and Whitefish Bay Dominican also lead their respective divisions in the latest AP poll which came out yesterday. Division 3 champ Brillion did not make the Top-10 this week, but it still has a No. 1 seed going into the tournament. This year’s boys’ state tournament will be played March 7-9 in Madison. In a change from the past, all divisions will each send four schools to the Kohl Center. Division 1 used to have eight teams at state.

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Germantown finished at Number-One in the final AP boys’ state high school basketball Division 1 poll. Germantown was only one in the Top-10 to finish its regular season at 22-0. Milwaukee Rufus King was second, followed by Sun Prairie and Milwaukee Hamilton. In Division 2, Onalaska remained atop its final poll, followed by Wisconsin Lutheran and West De Pere. Little Chute is the Division 3 leader, with East Troy second and Wisconsin Dells third. Whitefish Bay Dominican leads Division 4, with Cuba City and Laconia second-and-third. And Green Bay Northeast Wisconsin Lutheran moved up one spot to finish first in the Division 5 poll. Randolph, with two losses, dropped to second. Clayton is third. Randolph had its 175-game conference winning streak snapped by Pardeeville last week.

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Meanwhile, Wisconsin girls’ high school teams are in the final week of their regular season. And De Pere remains atop the AP Division 1 poll with Oak Creek second, Sussex Hamilton third, and Mukwonago fourth. New London still leads Division 2, followed by New Berlin Eisenhower and Onalaska. Neillsville remains the Division 3 leader, with East Troy and Kewaunee second-and-third. In Division 4, Cuba City still rules the roost with Colfax second and Algoma third. And in Division 5, Wisconsin Rapids Assumption remains at No. 1, followed by Milwuakee Heritage Christian and Barneveld.

Tags: prep boys basketball, wisconsin sports, prep girls basketball, prep