The boys’ 7th District basketball tournament has been a big Maroon Party for nine straight years.
Guess what? Madisonville-North Hopkins is the favorite in the district once again this year and is expected to challenge for the 2nd Region crown as well.
The 7th District tourney begins Monday night at Hopkins County Central High School.
The Maroons have won 17 straight games this season and will carry a 24-5 mark into postseason play.
Madisonville may be the region’s deepest team.
Three players score in double figures with another knocking on the door.
Junior big man Ksuan Casey leads the team with 15.6 points and 9.4 rebounds a contest. Kenny White, a 6-foot-7 junior forward, scores 12.7 points and grabs 7.9 boards a game. Both of those players already have offers from the University of Evansville.
Senior Cade Cunningham, who announced this week that he will play his college basketball at Brescia University in Owensboro, nets 11.6 points a game.
In addition, senior guard J.D. Gilbert is averaging 9.9 points while junior Keshawn Stone gets 8.0 points a contest.
The only bump in the road for the Maroons in the district during the regular season came at Caldwell County. Madisonville trailed by eight points in the second half before righting the ship and coming back to claim an 80-70 victory.
The Tigers (17-9) figure to be the biggest threat to Madisonville’s run of championships.
Caldwell is led by 6-2 senior guard Derrin Boyd, who is averaging right at 24 points a game and is coming off a career-best 43-point performance in a 96-91 loss at University Heights on Tuesday.
Boyd has scored 1,815 career points and needs just five points to move into fourth-place on Caldwell’s career scoring list.
But Boyd isn’t the only offensive weapon for Caldwell, which is shooting over 50 percent from the floor for the season and over 40 percent as a team from 3-point range. The Tigers also make 78 percent of their free throws.
Senior guard John Davis is scoring just over 12 points a game while junior forward Cayden Fraliex is just under 12 points a night. Sophomore guard Tripp Branch gets almost 9 points a game off the bench.
However, Caldwell will have to get past Hopkins County Central to get a shot at Madisonville in the title tilt as the Tigers chase their first district championship since 2007.
The Storm knocked off the Tigers in the semifinal round last year and has split with Caldwell this season.
Hopkins Central (12-14) won 67-66 on a late layup in mid-January in Mortons Gap, but the Tigers avenged that loss by winning 74-58 in late-January in Princeton.
Senior guard Tylan Mann leads the Storm with 21.8 points a game. Junior Blasin Moore is averaging 11.1 points, sophomore forward Adrian Stringer nets 10.0 points and 8.3 rebounds, and senior guard Ethan Putty scores 9.7 points a game.
Hopkins Central was the last school not named Madisonville-North Hopkins to wear the 7th District crown, claiming the championship in 2009.
Meanwhile, Dawson Springs faces a tough task against top-seeded Madisonville if the Panthers want a shot at their first district championship since 1997.
Dawson (9-19) went 0-6 against district foes during the regular season and lost twice to the Maroons, by 41 points and 54 points.
Junior guard Skyler Clark leads the Panthers with 18.3 points a game while sophomore guard Landon Pace averages 13.0 points a contest. Sophomore forward Dylan Dawson gets 7.0 points a night along with a team-high 9.1 rebounds.
Madisonville and Dawson will open the district tourney Monday at 6 p.m.
Second-seeded Caldwell faces No. 3 Hopkins Central in Monday’s late game at around 7:30 p.m.
The boys’ 7th District championship game is set for Thursday night at 6 p.m.
Monday’s winners will not only advance to the district final, but will earn a berth in the 2nd Region tournament, which will be played the following week at Madisonville-North Hopkins.