Girls basketball tournament tips off tonight with three Catholic teams in action

For The Dialog

There is a strong Catholic feel to the girls’ basketball state tournament, as five Catholic schools are in. First-round games will be held tonight, with the winners playing Thursday. All games start at 7 p.m.

St. Mark’s, the 17^th seed, will travel to William Penn (14-6) to meet the No. 16 Colonials. The Spartans finished the regular season 6-13, but the earned a host of bonus points because of a strong schedule. The winner will play at top-seeded Ursuline on Thursday night.

Padua is the 12^th seed, but they cannot play home games during the playoffs, so the Pandas will meet No. 21 Woodbridge at Brandywine High School. Padua finished the regular season with a 12-8 record, while the Blue Raiders went 11-7. The victor travels to No. 5 Milford on Thursday.

The final Catholic team in action tonight is Archmere. The 10^th-seeded Auks, who were 15-5 this season, host No. 23 St. Andrew’s, which was 12-6. A date with No. 7 Smyrna awaits the winner.

St. Elizabeth earned the fourth seed and has a first-round bye. The 14-5 Vikings will play the winner of tonight’s matchup between No. 20 Polytech (9-11) at No. 13 Wilmington Charter (15-5).

Other first-round games tonight, along with the second-round matchup: No. 24 Delcastle (10-9) at No. 9 Hodgson (16-4), with the winner visiting No. 8 Caesar Rodney (15-5); No. 18 Lake Forest (15-5) at No. 15 Seaford (13-7), with the winner visiting No. 2 Sanford (19-1); No. 19 Conrad (16-4) at No. 14 Appoquinimink (12-8), with the winner visiting No. 3 Caravel (16-4); and No. 22 A.I. DuPont (11-9) at No. 11 Sussex Central (14-5), with the winner visiting No. 6 Concord (16-4).

Tickets for the first two rounds are $5 and will be sold at the door.

The quarterfinals will be played Saturday at the Bob Carpenter Center at the University of Delaware. The first game begins at 2 p.m. The semifinals are March 5 at 6:30 and 8 p.m., and the championship game is March 7 at 7 p.m. Those rounds are also at the Bob.

Tickets for playoff games at the Bob Carpenter Center are $8 and are available at diaa.ticketleap.com. One ticket is good for the entire session.