Defending champion Ayer is the top seed in the Large School Division and unbeaten Nipmuc Regional is seeded first among the Small Schools for the 51st annual Clark Tournament.
The schoolboy basketball tournament will run Feb. 18-24 at Clark University's Kneller Athletic Center.
Ayer, 12-1, will take on Leicester at 8 p.m. in the last of four Large School games on Monday, Feb. 19. Leicester was one of four schools with 7-7 records that flipped coins for the final two spots in the tournament. Leicester and Hopedale won the flips. Blackstone-Millville and Tantasqua lost.
Hopedale will play Dual Valley Conference rival Nipmuc at 7:45 p.m. in the last of four Small School games on Sunday, Feb. 18. Nipmuc, 14-0, hasn't won the Clark Tournament since current coach Jim Grant was a junior at the school in 1964.
Two other schools, Algonquin and Shrewsbury, applied to play in the tournament, but both had records of below .500. The 16 schools with the best records were divided into two divisions by student enrollment.
In other Large School opening-round matchups Feb. 19, Westboro plays Southbridge at 2:30, Northbridge takes on Milford at 4:15 and Shepherd Hill battles with its arch-rival from the Border Conference, Bartlett, at 6:15 p.m.
In other Small School opening-round games Feb. 18, Grafton plays Maynard at 1, Groton-Dunstable faces Sutton at 2:45, and defending champion Bromfield plays Millbury at 6.
Clark pairings
LARGE SCHOOLS
Monday, Feb. 19
(3) Westboro (11-3) vs. (6) Southbridge (10-4), 2:30
(2) Northbridge (11-3) vs. (7) Milford (9-5), 4:15
(4) Shepherd Hill (10-3) vs. (5) Bartlett (11-4), 6:15
SMALL SCHOOLS
Sunday, Feb. 18
(3) Grafton (12-2) vs. (6) Maynard (8-6), 1
(2) Groton-Dunstable (13-1) vs. (7) Sutton (8-6), 2:45
(4) Bromfield (12-2) vs. (5) Millbury (9-5), 6
(1)Nipmuc (14-0) vs. (8) Hopedale (7-7), 7:45
NIPMUC HITS THE RIGHT GEAR
February 19, 1990/
Sandy Burgin
Nipmuc Regional Coach Jim Grant talked about shifting gears last night.
For more than a half his unbeaten Warriors were stuck in neutral as surprising Hopedale (9-9) built an eight-point lead, 32-24, in the third quarter. But, sparked by its defense and the hot shooting of Pat Sullivan (19 points), Nipmuc shifted into high gear over the final 13 minutes and drove away with a 54-39 victory in an opening round Small Schools game in the 51st annual Clark Tournament.
The Warriors (17-0) will face defending champion Bromfield (15-2) Wednesday night in a Small Schools semifinal at Clark's Kneller Athletic Center at 7:45 p.m.
The two Dual Valley League rivals were scheduled to play their final regular-season game on Thursday and then again on Friday, but were postponed due to the weather. Now they won't meet until Monday to determine the Dual Valley League title, but they will be prepping for that at the Clark tomorrow.
"All week long we were geared up to play Bromfield,"said Grant. "When we got postponed twice we had to shift gears and start planning ahead for Hopedale. As you can see things got a little stuck in the first half and you really have to attribute that to Hopedale, which outhustled, outrebound (18-9) and outscored us (27-22)."
Six-foot-four sophomore Chris Tattrie (9 points, 5 rebounds) and Tim Mooradian (8 points, 4 assists) sparked Hopedale over the first two quarters and when Matthew McNabb went driving the lane and dropped in a short hook shot the Blue Raiders were in front, 32-24, two minutes into the third quarter.
"I really wasn't too worried,"said Nipmuc's 6-1 junior center Sullivan. "We hadn't really played with much intensity. And we really hadn't forced them into tough shots. I figured if we did tighten down our defense, the offense would take care of itself."
And it did as Eric Usher and Jeremy Harvey, both of whom had 10 points and Sullivan, who hit on 7 of 12 from the floor, combined for all of their teams 18 third-period points as the Warriors went on an 18-2 run to take a 40-34 lead.
John Grady and Ken Staffier copmbined for a half dozen rebounds in that third period that helped ignite the fast break.
And the running, gunning and guarding didn't stop as Nipmuc outscored Hopedale, 14-5 over the final eight minutes to finish in victory lane again.
