IHSAA Unveils Girls Basketball Sectional Pairings

The state tournament starts on February 3.

East Central after their sectional championship win last February. Photo by Travis Thayer, Eagle Country 99.3.

INDIANAPOLIS - On Sunday night, the IHSAA released pairings for the 51st Annual IHSAA Girls Basketball State Tournament.

A total of 393 teams across four classifications will chase championship glory starting Tuesday February 3. 

Sectional games are scheduled to run through Saturday, February 7 when 64 sectional championship teams will be crowned. The regional is a single-game championship set for Saturday, February 14, and the semi-state a two-game affair with the winner advancing to the state championship game.

Two regional championship games will be played back-to-back at the same site with the winners finding out their next opponent and host site the following day. The semi-state games – scheduled for Saturday, February 21 - will be randomly drawn live and announced in a special pairings show via IHSAAtv.org. The four state championship games that make up the State Finals will be played at Gainbridge Fieldhouse – the home of the Indiana Fever and Indiana Pacers - in downtown Indianapolis on Saturday, February 28.

About the Draw

To conduct the random drawing for the girls basketball state tournament, the IHSAA places ping-pong balls representing each school in each sectional into a lottery-style air mix machine. A motorized fan in the bottom of the machine blows the balls around the inside of the transparent container and air then forces each ball up through a tube in random order. For example, the first ball retrieved from the machine will be the visiting team in game one with the second ball representing the home team in game one. The third ball to come out is the visitor in game two and the fourth ball the home team in game two. That same method is followed through all 64 sectionals and 16 regionals.

Class 4A Sectional 14 at Columbus East

Class 3A Sectional 29 at Franklin County

Class 2A Sectional 45 at Austin

Class A Sectional 60 at Jac-Cen-Del