Arcadia Valley's lone loss heightens the "overrated" talk

Basketball fans in this part of the state are a tough bunch.

Arcadia Valley was 28-0, defeated schools twice its size and took four tournament championships back to its Ironton campus since late November. The Tigers were ranked No. 1 in the Class 3 state media poll since early in the season and had the second-longest win streak in the state.

And the talk going into Wednesday's Class 3 sectional game? The Tigers were overrated, and critics were lined up from Kennett to the Dexter gymnasium last night to see it for themselves.

Tough crowd.

For a team that skeptics called "overrated" since midseason, Arcadia Valley didn't look that way in its season-ending loss to unranked Kennett. AV cut a 17-point lead down to 4 points in the second half before a few quick defensive highlights sent Kennett (22-7) streaking toward the finish of a 77-57 win.

Overrated? Overmatched, no doubt. Kennett's bench was a factor. Overwhelmed, maybe. That could account for AV's mediocre 14-of-25 free-throw shooting.

But overrated? We won't know that until at least Saturday — against Cardinal Ritter, Kennett can prove that it was the team actually underrated all along.