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By Sonny Jones

It’s Championship Friday for the Southeastern Athletic Conference basketball tournaments. The East Bladen boys’ and girls’ teams will play St. Pauls inside the Sampson Middle School gym.

Which teams will win? You can vote in our Twitter polls.

Which team wins the SAC-7 basketball tournament?

— Bladen Online (@BladenOnline) February 17, 2023

The East Bladen and St. Pauls boys split their regular season meetings. St. Pauls outlasted the Eagles 62-59 in double overtime in Elizabethtown on Jan. 20. East Bladen held off the Bulldogs for a 56-50 victory a week ago in St. Pauls.

The St. Pauls girls won both regular season contests, beating the Eagles 78-61 in Elizabethtown, then hanging on for a 63-61 win last Friday in St. Pauls.

We’ll see what happens in the third meeting between the teams.

• While there’s bragging rights for winning a conference tournament championships, there’s also state playoff seeding and the Ratings Percentage Index. Conference tournament games count toward RPI. Here’s how teams stack up going into Friday’s play.

Boys: No. 11 East Bladen, No. 13 St. Pauls, No. 14 West Bladen.

Girls: No. 4 Fairmont, No. 5 St. Pauls, No. 13 East Bladen.

The NCHSAA will release first-round pairings mid- to late-Saturday afternoon. First-round games will be played Tuesday at the higher seed.

• I know it can’t be done, but it would be an easier trip if the East Bladen and St. Pauls teams could play Friday at West Bladen instead of traveling to Clinton. Just an unrealistic thought.

TODAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1998 — The U.S. women’s hockey team wins the sport’s first Olympic gold medal. Sandra Whyte scores on an empty-netter with 8 seconds left to give the United States a 3-1 victory over Canada.

POTATO PICKS TO WATCH TODAY

• PGA CHAMPIONS: Chubb Classic, noon, GOLF

• SOFTBALL: Duke vs. South Florida, 1 p.m., ACCN

• MEN’S LACROSSE: Denver at Duke, 4 p.m., ESPNU

• PGA: Genesis Invitational, 4 p.m., GOLF

• WRESTLING: N.C. State at North Carolina, 7 p.m., ACCN

• NBA: All-Star Celebrity Game, 7 p.m., ESPN

• NASCAR TRUCKS: NextEra Energy 250, 7:30 p.m., FS1

• NBA: Rising Stars Game, 9 p.m., TNT

• NHL: Los Angeles at Anaheim, 9 p.m., ESPN

Sonny Jones can be reached at wibbyj@gmail.com.