By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
The All “A” Classic boys and girls state basketball tournaments in Richmond have been postponed for at least one day due to the harsh winter weather that’s expected to sweep through Kentucky on Sunday night into Monday.
Weather reports are forecasting between four and 10 inches of snow to fall in the Richmond area where 16 boys and 16 girls basketball teams will compete in the annual state tournaments for small schools at Eastern Kentucky University’s McBrayer Arena.
The opening games of the girls tournament that were scheduled to start Monday morning have been postponed to Tuesday afternoon, according to an email sent to participating teams from the board of directors.
Canceling that first day means all of the game times will be altered and not necessarily played in the order they were originally scheduled. The board will let schools know when game times can be determined after they evaluate the situation Monday afternoon and then again on Tuesday morning.
The local teams among the state tournament qualifiers are St. Henry and Walton-Verona in the boys bracket and Newport Central Catholic, Bishop Brossart and Walton-Verona in the girls bracket. They earned berths in those brackets by winning regional tournaments.
The first-round match-ups in the girls state tournament include Walton-Verona vs. Bardstown Bethlehem, NewCath vs. Crittenden County and Brossart vs. Murray. Boys first-round games involving local teams are Walton-Verona vs. Somerset and St. Henry vs. Owensboro Catholic.
Last year, St. Henry defeated Frankfort, 77-70, in the boys state championship game and Bardstown Bethlehem defeated Walton-Verona, 51-47, in the girls final. At this time, the semifinal and championship games for this year’s tournament will be played next Sunday (Feb. 21).