When McDonogh's girls basketball team beat Roland Park Monday, it appeared the defending champion Eagles were on their way to the top seed in next week's IAAM A Conference tournament.
St. Frances put a kink in that plan last night.
With their 52-51 upset victory over the Eagles, the Panthers prevented McDonogh from securing the No. 1 seed. Instead, Roland Park gets the top spot and will have a bye in the A Conference quarterfinals.
The Reds completed their A Conference schedule with a 10-2 record after Wednesday night's win over Archbishop Spalding. The Eagles are 9-2 with only Thursday night's makeup game against St. Vincent Pallotti remaining. Pallotti is 1-10 in the conference.
Barring a major upset, the Eagles will also finish 10-2. Because the Eagles and the Reds split their regular-season meetings, the tie breaker becomes their record against the next best team. St. Frances is in third place, and Roland Park beat the Panthers twice while McDonogh split.
As a result, Roland Park gets the bye into Thursday's semfinals, where the Reds will host the winner of Tuesday's semifinal between Seton Keough and Spalding. The Gators are the No. 4 seed.
McDonogh will host the seventh seed in the quarterfinals on Tuesday. John Carroll or Pallotti will take the seventh spot, but that won't be determined until after Thursday's games. One will be the six seed and play at third-seeded St. Frances oh Tuesday.
The higher remaining seeds will host the semifinals Thursday at 5:30 p.m. The title game will be Sunday at 5 p.m. at Stevenson University.
To see the brackets for all three conferences, click here. The C Conference final will be played Sunday at 1 p.m. at Stevenson, with the B Conference at 3 p.m.