COPLEY TWP. — Medina County boys basketball fans will get their money’s worth at the Copley Division I Sectional after what transpired at Sunday’s draw.

To kick it off, Medina will square off with Wadsworth in the sectional semifinals Feb. 29. Even better, the winner gets second-seeded Brunswick three days later.

In other words, an area school is guaranteed a berth in the March 8 district semifinals against Hudson, Twinsburg or third-seeded Nordonia.

“It’s great for the county,” Blue Devils coach Joe Mackey said. “Look at it that way.”

The vote for the top seed highlighted a draw with plenty of intrigue considering nine of the 12 teams currently have a .500 or better record.

With Suburban League teams voting for Nordonia (14-2), Brunswick (13-4) lost to Stow (13-3) for top billing.

The Blue Devils beat out Nordonia 6-5 for No. 2, so it didn’t matter much either way since Stow and Brunswick were a lock to place themselves on opposite sides of the bracket.

Mackey, who elected a bye over a first-round game for scouting purposes, was just happy his team received respect after moving over from the Midview District with Cloverleaf and Medina.

“There’s a lot of parity out here, so we’re going to have to win three tough games to get out,” Mackey said. “We know that, and I think we’ll be up to the challenge.

“We got a great deal of respect out there at Midview over the years when it came to the seeds and votes. You never know at these things. They can put the conference block on you. I think we came away with a two shows we have a great deal of respect from a lot of coaches who haven’t seen us play.”

Eighth-seeded Wadsworth (9-7) elected an open sectional semifinal in Brunswick’s path instead of taking a bye and almost certainly playing Stow, which put a kink into things by not taking a bye.

Wadsworth’s opportunity to play a lower seed wasn’t much of a choice, and Medina coach Anthony Stacey took about eight seconds to jump at the chance to play the Grizzlies after No. 9 Cuyahoga Falls elected to play fellow Northeast Ohio Conference River Division school Twinsburg.

The Black Tigers’ decision was paramount in setting up the county matchups.

“We knew coming in there was a good chance we’d play someone we’ve already played, and most likely someone who had beaten us the first time around,” Wadsworth coach Mike Schmeltzer Jr. said in reference to playing Medina. “It’s going to be a good game. It’s a county rivalry and we’ll go back and look at the film. We shot the ball terribly that night (.305 in a 58-42 loss on Jan. 24), but we’ve got a lot of work to do because their record is deceiving.”

Highland (8-8) lost the 10th seed to Medina 8-4, and was the unanimous No. 11 seed ahead of Cloverleaf (1-16). The Hornets took the final bye in front of Stow, which forced the Colts to play the Bulldogs in a Feb. 28 sectional semifinal by default.

Buckeye (7-11), which hasn’t won a tournament game since 2001, will take on a familiar foe Feb. 28 at the Westlake Division II Sectional in Patriot Athletic Conference Stars Division newbie Firelands (6-11). The winner will play top-seeded Benedictine three days later.

Black River (1-15) received the final seed at the Wooster D-III draw and will play top-seeded and state-ranked Norwayne (15-2) on Feb. 28.

Contact Albert Grindle at (330) 721-4043 or agrindle@medina-gazette.com.

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