Girls basketball: The Valley Wheel and Suburban League titles will be decided by the outcome of three games Thursday night.
It's official . . . 31 high school girls basketball teams from Western Massachusetts will play on.
The sectional tournament fields in all three divisions are set, as no other teams are still in contention to qualify. The tournament seeding meeting takes place Saturday at noon.
So that leaves one night - the last day of the regular season - to take care of other business.
First and foremost, two league championships will be decided Thursday night.
The marquee matchup - with the Valley Wheel crown at stake - features a head-to-head clash between West Springfield and host Holyoke at 7 p.m.
West Springfield (15-4, 9-2) and Holyoke (17-2, 9-2) meet in a rematch of a 65-62 overtime game won by Holyoke. The winner takes all Thursday night.
The Suburban League chase may lack head-to-head drama, but Amherst and Longmeadow are still fighting for a piece of that title.
Each team has an 8-1 league record entering Thursday night's finales. Amherst (16-3) plays at Chicopee Comp (2-17, 1-8) and Longmeadow (12-7) hosts Chicopee (8-11, 5-4).
The teams each defeated the other, on the road, to split their regular-season series.
The Hurricanes and Lancers also met in the Western Mass. Division I final last March, with Amherst winning.
