Eight area basketball teams will compete for section titles this weekend, and at least two will be coming home as champions.
Six games will take place Saturday, March 7, with two more on Sunday, March 8. The Section IV Class D games all feature local teams.
Here is a look at this weekend’s championships:
Section IV Class D
Girls: Cherry Valley-Springfield (17-4) vs. Stamford/Jefferson (20-2)
The Delaware League and Tri-Valley League champions will face off Saturday, with one bringing home a championship. For the combined S/J programs, it would be a first, but they lost in the section finals last season to South Kortright/Andes. CV-S won a section title and a regional title in 2024 before losing in the Class D Final Four. The Patriots lost to Oxford in the 2023 section finals.
S/J, which won its first Delaware League title since the early 2000s by beating SK/A at SUNY Delhi on Feb. 21, is led by senior forward McKenna Hoyt. Hoyt who has committed to play NCAA Division I basketball in the fall at Longwood University in Farmville, Va., is averaging 29 points per game this season. She has scored more than 2,000 points in her varsity career and is the leading scorer in Delaware League girls basketball history.
However, S/J is a senior-led team with depth and size. The team’s only losses this season came to Class A Oneonta and Class B Sidney.
By contrast, the Patriots are a younger, smaller team. Adrianna Tripple is the only senior. The team’s success comes from balanced scoring from guards MacKenzie McGovern and Allie Ackerman and forward/center Bailey Thayer. All three are sophomores.
S/J beat Richfield Springs/Owen D. Young in the semifinals, 49-42, at SUNY Delhi on Wednesday, March 4. CV-S beat Laurens/Milford, 50-29, also Wednesday in Delhi.
“They can shoot,” S/J Coach George Nebesnik said. “They are going to present us with some problems. We are going to have to make sure we can get out on them on defense so we don’t give up open looks.”
“That is a very difficult team,” CV-S Coach Kelly Taggart said. “It is going to be about trying to slow them down, not really stopping them, but just being able to slow them down.”
Stamford/Jefferson is ranked second in Class D girls basketball by the New York Sportswriters Association, while Cherry Valley-Springfield is ranked 14th.
The Section IV Class D girls finals will take place at 2 p.m., Saturday at SUNY Delhi.
Boys: Edmeston (19-3) vs. Schenevus (15-6)
Two Tri-Valley League teams will compete for a section title Saturday.
The Panthers won the TVL title Feb. 20, by upsetting No. 1 seeded Morris,72-49. They beat Schenevus in the league semifinals, 50-36, in Edmeston on Feb. 10, and also during the regular season, 52-47, on Feb. 5, in Schenevus.
The Dragons made the section final by upsetting Morris on Wednesday at SUNY Delhi, 58-53. Edmeston topped South Kortright/Andes in the semifinals, 69-37.
Edmeston’s leading scorer is junior guard Braymon Clark, who is averaging 18 points per game. Schenevus is led by senior guard Allen Osborne, who is averaging 15 points per game.
Schenevus won a section title in boys basketball in 1976. Edmeston lost in the title game to South Kortright/Andes in 2024 and to Marathon in 2019, but this group of Panther boys won a section and regional title in soccer last fall.
Edmeston is ranked eighth in Class D boys basketball by the New York Sportswriters Association, while Schenevus is ranked 19th.
The Section IV Class D boys finals will take place at 4 p.m., Saturday at SUNY Delhi.
Section IV Class C
Boys: Delaware Academy (19-3) vs. Notre Dame (17-4)
The Bulldogs 17-game win streak will be tested against the Crusaders from Elmira.
Delaware Academy, the Midstate Athletic Conference champion, is the second seed and advanced to the section title game with a win over No. 3 Trumansburg, 63-43, on Wednesday, March 4.
Notre Dame is the top seed, but lost to Trumansburg, 59-45, in the Interscholastic Athletic Conference Large School Championship on Feb. 19. Since then, the Crusaders beat Marathon, 55-50, and Union Springs, 56-48, to advance to the championship game. Notre Dame also lost twice to Lansing and once to Waverly.
Senior Max O’Connor leads the Crusaders in scoring this season, but freshman Mike Sutryk came up big in the semifinals, making three three-point baskets in the fourth quarter to help the Crusaders advance.
Notre Dame has not won a section title in boys basketball since 2014.
Delaware Academy is ranked 10th in Class C boys basketball by the New York Sportswriters Association, while Notre Dame is ranked 16th.
The Section IV Class C boys finals will take place at 4 p.m., Saturday at Tompkins Cortland Community College in Dryden.
Girls: Delaware Academy (20-2) vs. Union Springs (18-2)
The Bulldog girls will attempt to repeat as Section IV Class C winners but will face a Wolves team that has already dispatched two Midstate Athletic Conference teams.
Union Springs beat Bainbridge-Guilford, 44-36, in the semifinals on Wednesday, and also topped Unatego in the quarterfinals, 44-33, on Feb. 27.
The Wolves are the IAC Small School champions, beating Candor in the league finals, 69-47, on Feb. 20.
The Union Springs girls have only lost to two larger schools this season, Susquehanna Valley and Johnson City.
Delaware Academy is ranked eighth in Class C girls basketball by the New York Sportswriters Association, while Union Springs is ranked 14th.
The Section IV Class C girls finals will take place at 2 p.m. at Tompkins Cortland Community College in Dryden.
Section III Class C Boys
Cooperstown (23-0) vs. Cato-Meridian (21-2)
When the Hawkeyes beat C-M in the finals of the Dick White Holiday Basketball Tournament on Dec. 30, at Red Bursey Gymnasium, Coach John Lambert made a prediction that turned out to be true.
“You might be looking at the section final today,” Lambert said after his team won, 80-67.
The undefeated Hawkeyes are the top ranked team in the state in Class C boys basketball, while C-M is ranked eighth. They are the top two seeds in the Section III Class C tournament.
C-M, the Patriot League National Division champions, beat Frankfort-Schuyler in the semifinals, 75-53, on March 3.
C-M split a pair of regular-season games with Weedsport, with a 78-57 home loss Jan. 23, to the Wolverines being the team’s only loss other than at Cooperstown.
The Hawkeyes, who won the section title last season, have the leading scorer in the region. Senior Miles Nelen is averaging more than 27 points per game.
C-M is led by sophomore Perry Plank IV, who is averaging 21 points per game.
The Section III Class C boys finals will take place at 11 a.m., Sunday at Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena in Syracuse.
Section IV Class A Boys
Oneonta (16-4) vs. Maine-Endwell (14-6)
Two Southern Tier Athletic Conference division champions will face off Sunday, with one claiming the Class A title.
Metro Division champion Maine-Endwell is the top seed in tiny Class A, which had just five teams in the boys basketball playoffs. M-E lost to Seton in the STAC semifinals, while Oneonta lost to Corning-Painted Post.
East Division champion Oneonta won an overtime thrilled Wednesday at home to advance to the finals, with senior Brady Carr making a buzzer beater to send the game into overtime.
Maine-Endwell advanced to the finals by beating Chenango Valley, 78-60.
Carr, with 21 points per game, and Britten Zeh, with just under 16 points per game, are senior leaders on a Yellowjacket team that is deep and experienced.
Maine-Endwell is experienced, too. The Spartans, who are led by junior guard Marco Konrad and senior point guard Preston Ocker, lost to Seton in the Class A finals last season and won a Class A title in 2024.
Oneonta is seeking its first section title in boys basketball since 2008, when it won a Class A crown.
Oneonta is ranked 14th in Class A boys basketball by the New York Sportswriters Association, while Maine-Endwell is ranked 20th.
The Section IV Class A boys finals will take place at 3:15 p.m., Sunday at Visions Veterans Arena in Binghamton.