Girls basketball: Scrap brewing for automatic region seeds

The Southeastern District this year joined the Eastern District in securing Eastern Region tournament seeds for its top two regular-season finishers.

Grassfield, King's Fork and Western Branch are the teams fighting for those two Southeastern bids. All three face opponents tonight they've already beaten.

From there on out, the seventh-ranked Bruins are going to need plenty of help to get into the top two. Western Branch already has lost twice to Grassfield and split with King's Fork. Most likely, Western Branch will have to fight its way into the region field by way of the district tournament, but that shouldn't be a problem.

That leaves No. 5 King's Fork and No. 6 Grassfield set for what should be a championship showdown Thursday night on the Bulldogs' home court.

Grassfield lost at home to King's Fork by just two midway through the season.

In the Beach

The Beach District gives only its regular-season winner an automatic ticket to the region tournament.

Heading into tonight's action, Salem is unbeaten and in the driver's seat for the title - which would be its first since 1993-94. A Salem title would dethrone seven-time winner Princess Anne.

The SunDevils and Cavaliers meet only once this regular season - that was earlier this month and Salem took that one in a 56-55 thriller. Salem faces First Colonial tonight and gets its final serious test Friday against Landstown.

Princess Anne, First Colonial and Landstown are tied for second heading into tonight with one loss apiece.

In the Eastern

Lake Taylor once again is the class of the field, having beaten everybody by a wide margin. The Titans' only other test comes next Tuesday at Wilson, a team they beat the first time around by 34 points.

That leaves tonight's Wilson-Maury game key in deciding which team gets the second automatic region bid. The Commodores edged the Presidents by one point in the first meeting when Maury's Kayla Airaghi nailed a 3-pointer with 22 seconds left to play.

In the Peninsula District, Woodside has locked up its title at 14-0 in league play, with Hampton the closest competitor with three losses.