BERLIN — Stephen Decatur’s boys’ varsity basketball team held up their end in the battle with Pocomoke for the Bayside South championship with a 71-61 win over Cambridge-South Dorchester in the regular season finale on the road on Monday, but the Seahawks lost a fateful coin toss on Tuesday morning to the Warriors, who will move on to the conference championship game on Wednesday.
The Seahawks and the Warriors waged a remarkable battle all season long for the Bayside South title as each finished with identical 19-1 conference records. Pocomoke had its season finale last Thursday and awaited the outcome of Decatur’s game on Monday at Cambridge-South Dorchester, a make-up game from an earlier cancellation to see who would advance to the Bayside Conference championship game on Wednesday.
After the Seahawks beat the Vikings on Monday, the Bayside South title came down to a coin toss on Tuesday morning, per conference by-laws, and the toss went Pocomoke’s way, sending the Warriors to Wednesday’s title game and leaving the Seahawks with an empty feeling in terms of their conference championship goals, but their remarkable season lives on with a good shot at a state regional title and possible a state championship still out there.
The state regional brackets will be announced later on Tuesday and Decatur will most assuredly be the top seed in Class 3A-East region and as such will play at home at least the state’s Final Four. Likewise, Pocomoke will almost certainly be the top seed in the Class 1A-East region and also has an excellent opportunity to advance deep into the state tournament.
However, there is no opportunity for the Seahawks and Warriors to meet again this year because they play in different classes in the state based on student population. The two teams split their head-head regular season games with each winning on their home floor. Pocomoke beat Decatur, 64-58, back on December 21 just before the holiday break.
The Seahawks returned the favor on January 26 with a resounding 67-48 win over the Warriors at home in front of a sold-out crowd. The stands began filling up hours before game time and capacity was reached well before the national anthem and the opening tip-off. The Worcester County Fire Marshal’s Office was on hand to monitor the crowd size and Sheriff’s Deputies blocked the entrances once capacity was reached. Fans filled every seat in the bleachers and the standing-room-only crowd lined the court two or three deep on both ends of the floor. Decatur beat Pocomoke by 19 points, while the Warriors beat the Seahawks by six points, resulting in a difference of just 13 points in the two-game split.
However, a third game in the trilogy to decide the Bayside South championship was not in the cards, even with fans on both sides clamoring for the title to be decided on the court, even at a large neutral venue which would have produced a sell-out despite short notice. According to the Bayside by-laws, conference ties will be based first on the opponents’ head-to-head records against the other teams.
In the event the two teams split head-to-head, as was the case with Decatur and Pocomoke this year, the next tiebreaker is the two teams’ win-loss percentage against all opponents. If still tied, the championship will be determined by a coin toss, as was the case on Tuesday morning. Both teams finished with identical 19-1 conference records. Decatur split its two games in the Governor’s Challenge tournament, beating Battlefield, but losing to Bowie. Pocomoke lost its two Governor’s Challenge games, falling to Bowie and Idea Charter. However, according to Bayside Conference by-laws, holiday tournament games do not count in the win-loss percentage used in the tiebreaker.
The long and short of it is, Pocomoke won the toss and will play in the Bayside Conference championship game on Wednesday against Bayside North champion Cambridge-South Dorchester, ironically the team the Seahawks beat on Monday to force the coin toss in the first place. Meanwhile, the Seahawks will watch the outcome of that contest from afar as they prepare for what could be a deep run into the state playoffs.
There is plenty of precedent for Bayside South championships in different sports to be decided by coin tosses, including a handful involving Decatur in recent years.
