E.A. Sports Today

Fans like J’ville girls, Cubs boys No. 1

Golden Eagles, Alexandria grab the fans’ attention by wide margins

By East Alabama Sports Today

The official seedings for the Calhoun County Basketball Tournament won’t be announced until Sunday afternoon, but the fans of Calhoun County have made their call for the top seeds in the respective brackets.

Responding to an East Alabama Sports Today poll the last three weeks, the fans expect 15-2 Jacksonville to be the No. 1 seed in the girls tournament and 14-2 Alexandria to pull down the No. 1 seed in the boys tournament.

Both teams, when they have won, have typically done so by wide margins. Jacksonville’s girls won by 38 Friday night, while Alexandria’s boys won by 29.

Jacksonville’s girls pulled down 59 percent of the vote, followed by Ohatchee (17), Anniston (14), Saks (7) and Piedmont (3).

“There are lots of good teams in the county,” Jacksonville girls coach Ryan Chambless said Friday night after his team dismantled Alexandria 71-33. “They (any poll) don’t really mean a whole lot until you play it out. They are only as good as the paper they are written on.”

On the boys side, Alexandria pulled down 43 percent of the vote, followed by White Plains (18), Saks and Jacksonville (12 each), Sacred Heart (9) and Anniston (7). The poll closed at midnight.

“I don’t know how much it matters,” Cubs coach Jason Johnson said after his team slammed Jacksonville 73-44. “We have not seen every team play, but Sacred Heart, Anniston, Saks, Oxford and others are really good.

“It’s nice (to be considered the fans favorite), but we just keep trying to see if we can get a little better each night. Anniston (7-5) has beaten us this year, so you’ve gotta rank them ahead of us.”

All the teams that could be No. 1 have merit to distinguish their consideration. Probably the bigger debate is the blind draw that will produce the first-round matchups.

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