County tournament trophies, MVP’s, Victory Bells and just good old fashioned bragging rights will be on the line the first weekend of the new year.
The 2023 Shelby County Tournament Basketball Tournament will be held at Morristown January 5 – 7. On Wednesday, the county’s head coaches and athletic directors met at their traditional breakfast to hold the blind draw to set the brackets for the event.
The girls tournament semifinals will be on Thursday, January 5. In the opening game, Morristown will host Triton Central. In their first meeting, November 23, Morristown defeated the Tigers in Fairland, 38-35. It was the end of a 30-game losing streak for the Yellow Jackets in the series. Morristown (2-7) never trailed at the end of each quarter which helped it secure its first win over Triton Central (4-3) since Jan. 10, 2004.
It will be another rematch in the second semifinal. On November 11, after an 0-3 start to the season Waldron (2-6) defeated Southwestern for Ilea Shipp’s first head coaching win, 44-32.
Southwestern (0-9) is still fighting inexperience and the absence of leading returning scorer Lilly Rooks due to a torn ACL.
The boys tournament will open on Friday. In the opening semifinal at 6 p.m., defending champion Waldron (2-3) will play Southwestern (0-3). A preview of that matchup happens when the Mohawks host the Spartans on December 17.
The county tournament semifinal is the second of three meetings between the teams this season. A second regular season meeting will be at Southwestern on January 27. A potential fourth meeting could happen in Sectional 60.
In the boys second semifinal, Triton Central will square off against Morristown (1-4). The Tigers dominated the first meeting at Fairland on Thanksgiving Eve, 61-26.
Triton Central (4-0) completed a sweep of all of the other teams in Shelby County, including a win at Shelbyville, to open the season.
New Morristown head coach Cory Krieger will make his county tournament debut.
The championship games will be held Saturday, January 7. The girls tip at 6 p.m. Time will be allowed between games for celebration and cutting down the nets following the girls championship game. The boys will tip-off at approximately 8 p.m.
Every game of the Shelby County Tournament can be heard on GIANT fm Sports (96.5, 106.3, giant.fm and GIANT fm app).
