The IHSAA sectional draw for the 2025-26 girls basketball state tournament is set for Sunday.
IndyStar will have complete coverage of the draw proper with a live blog, initial takeaways and a live post-draw edition of The Scorers Table with former North Central coach DeeAnn Ramey joining Danny Riego and I.
And that’s just the plans for Sunday. I’ll have analysis of the best matchups, predictions, class-by-class area previews and players to know on IndyStar.com, plus preview episode(s) of The Scorers Table.
Once the action gets going, we’ll have our traditional game coverage, as well as live editions of The Scorers Table following each night of games. Be sure to subscribe to us at YouTube.com/@IndyStarTVPreps, and ring the bell to be notified when we go live.
We begin our postseason coverage with this: Five storylines to monitor during Sunday’s sectional draw show.
Who draws the byes in 4A Sectional 10? (And why that may not be preferred.)
This is one of those instances where the bye is probably not preferred, at least for three of the five teams.
Lawrence Central’s last regular-season game is Jan. 26, the last of four games in seven days. While 11 days of practice can be a good thing, they have a lot of new faces who are just beginning to settle into their roles and gelling together. A Tuesday tune-up to break up the gap between games probably wouldn’t be the worst thing.
The same can be said for North Central, which added the newly eligible Naja Winston, a Lawrence North transfer, to its lineup earlier this month. If the Panthers don’t draw they bye, they’ll at least have navigated a mini-gauntlet ahead of postseason play: Lawrence Central (Jan. 20), Jennings County (Jan. 24) and Warren Central (Jan. 30).
Defending 4A state champion Lawrence North is very young and plays a lot of freshmen. The opportunity to get their feet wet with a Tuesday night quarterfinal wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
Warren Central’s last regular-season game is Jan. 30 and it has some experienced pieces returning.
4A Sectional 11 jambalaya
There was a stretch earlier this season when I was wondering if this sectional would be as difficult as we expected it to be entering the season.
Silly me.
This thing is loaded. Pike is ranked top-2 in the state, Plainfield has stabilized following a wobbly December and Brownsburg has come dangerously close to knocking off a number of the state’s best teams. Then there’s Ben Davis, which hung with Lawrence Central at the Marion County tournament and beat Plainfield, and Avon, which has probably exceeded expectations in year one under coach Becca Hoefler (they graduated a lot from last season).
There are no easy outs and unlike Sectional 10, drawing the bye may not be the worst thing.
Most intriguing draw: 3A South
There are a few interesting sectionals here… An early-round meeting between Cathedral and Bishop Chatard would open up a sneaky solid S26 bracket (see: Purdue Poly and Attucks); Silver Creek might have to navigate Charlestown, Corydon Central and Madison in order to advance for the first time since 2022; Princeton could get another shot at Washington about a month after beating them in OT.
The regional draw is of even more interest.
Locally, there’s the potential for Roncalli vs. Cathedral (rematch of last year’s semistate semifinal) or Chatard.
The other half of the 3A South is an absolute mess with the bingo balls determining potential matchups among Greensburg/Jennings County, Silver Creek, Washington and Evansville Central.
The configuration of 3A Sectional 24
Sectional 11 is arguably the toughest in the state.
Sectional 24 is almost certainly the deepest.
Connersville, Delta and Jay County are all built to win right now; Hamilton Heights is very young, but has the talent for a deep run (experience counts for a lot this season); New Castle is in the midst of its best season since 2021-22; and Yorktown, led by senior Lilly Sylvester and junior Olivia Conklin, has the makings of a February party crasher.
We’ll dive deeper into this group in the coming weeks, but I’m really excited to see how the bracket shapes up.
Specific matchups to watch for
There are a few sectionals with two heavy favorites, so we’ll be watching to see where they’re situated in the bracket.
4A Sectional 5: Snider and Northrop — Snider upset the Bruins in last year’s sectional final, then stormed back from a double-digit fourth-quarter deficit to win the regular-season meeting a couple weeks ago. Panthers sophomore Janaya Cooper and freshman McKenzie White are two of the best in their respective classes; Northrop is extremely experienced with the two-headed monster of Swyn Jackson and Khala Williams-Thomas, plus Miley Wareing, who won a state title with Bishop Luers in 2024.
4A Sectional 4: Warsaw and Northridge — The Raiders dropped an 11-point decision to the top-ranked Tigers on Jan. 10, but they managed to turn that game into a low-scoring slugfest, limiting Warsaw to a season-low 43 points.
4A Sectional 6: Homestead and Norwell — The defending 3A state champion Knights moved up to 4A due to the success factor and, naturally, were thrown into a sectional with seven-time defending sectional champion Homestead. They knocked off the Spartans back in November, but Homestead followed that loss with a seven-game win streak.
4A Sectional 12: Center Grove and Franklin Central — The host Trojans beat a full-strength Flashes group in the season opener and have not lost since. FC’s ridden a rollercoaster since the opener, including a four-game skid a couple weeks ago, but still has the talent necessary to upset CG.
3A Sectional 26: Cathedral and Bishop Chatard — See above. And also last Friday’s City championship game.
3A Sectional 29: Greensburg and Jennings County — Greensburg won the regular-season matchup by 13 on Jan. 3, but I suspect we’ll see an entirely new level from Jennings County senior Mollie Ernstes, a Kansas commit, as she looks to lead the Panthers to their first sectional title since 2005. Her vs. Greensburg’s Claire Larrison will be must-see entertainment.
2A Sectional 37: Rensselaer Central and Benton Central — Rensselaer’s quest for a return to Gainbridge will undoubtedly take it through the Bison, whom they beat by six earlier in the season.
2A Sectional 47: South Knox and North Knox — This is one of the best rivalries in the state. SK won the regular-season matchup by 11; NK is looking to spoil the reigning champs’ quest for a repeat.
Follow Brian Haenchen on Twitter at @Brian_Haenchen. Get IndyStar’s high school coverage sent directly to your inbox with the High School Sports newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: 5 girls basketball storylines to monitor during Sunday draw: Insider
Reporting by Brian Haenchen, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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