MAAA rivals collide in Class 4 District 2 semis

Feb 26, 2019 @ 7:00am

Class 4 District 2 tournament action will continue Tuesday as the boys basketball semifinals get underway at North County High School. The top-seeded Farmington Knights will face the #5 DeSoto Dragons in the first game of the night. Farmington earned a first-round bye and comes in with a 23-2 record and a #4 state ranking. Knights coach Terry Noble said he doesn’t want to change much of the strategy that has gotten his team to this point.

Meanwhile, the Dragons come into the match-up with a a lot of momentum. DeSoto knocked off Ste. Genevieve 61-54 in overtime after trailing by double-digits in the fourth quarter. Now at 12-15, Dragons coach Zeb Hammond said Farmington’s size presents a real challenge.

In the other semifinal, the sixth-seeded North County Raiders will look to ride their home crowd when they face the Central Rebels. At 15-11 and coming off an impressive 70-62 win over Potosi in the first round, Raiders head coach Jimmy Palmer says his team needs to continue to put the ball in the bucket:

Number-two seed Central won twice in 3 meetings with North County this season and comes in at 14-12. Rebels head coach Adam Barton says a recent change to their defense has been key to his team’s success:

The winners of the two games will meet in the district championship Thursday night. Pregame coverage for the semifinal round of the boys Class 4 District 2 tournament begins at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday on J-98.