Nottingham draws top seed in MCT

The pairings were released Monday afternoon for the boys basketball 2018 Mercer County Tournament, which gets underway later this week.

Nottingham (18-2), Trenton Catholic (12-8), Trenton Central (16-5) and Hightstown (15-4) garnered the top four seeds as voted on by area coaches and will have home games through the first two rounds.

Ewing (14-6), the CVC’s Patriot Division champion, is another top contender as the No. 5 seed.

Hopewell (17-4) and West Windsor North (12-7) have both made significant jumps from last season, respectively moving up from No. 15 and No. 14 seeds to the No. 6 and No. 7 seeds.

Action begins Tuesday with a play-in game between Lawrence and Princeton. The winner will face Nottingham in Thursday’s first round.

The quarterfinals at the higher seeds are Saturday, and the semifinals and finals are slated for Feb. 20 and Feb. 22 at the CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton.

Here is the full tournament schedule: No. 17 Princeton at No. 16 Lawrence, 4 p.m.

Lawrence/Princeton at No. 1 Nottingham

No. 9 Pennington at No. 8 Notre Dame No. 12 Robbinsville at No. 5 Ewing No. 13 Allentown at No. 4 Hightstown No. 14 WW-P South at No. 3 Trenton No. 11 PDS at No. 6 Hopewell

No. 10 Hamilton at No. 7 WW-P North No. 15 Steinert at No. 2 TCA Nottingham/Lawrence/Princeton vs. Notre Dame/Pennington Ewing/Robbinsville vs. Hightstown/ Allentown Trenton/WW-P South vs. Hopewell/PDS WW-P North/Hamilton vs. TCA/Steinert

Quarterfinals 1 and 2 winners, 7:30 p.m. (CURE Insurance Arena) Quarterfinals 2 and 4 winners, 4:30 p.m. (CURE Insurance Arena)

Semifinals winners, 7:30 p.m. (CURE Insurance Arena)