Charlie Breitrose
Last year, Watertown’s boys basketball team celebrated at North Section Championship. Senior John Korte, shown here jumps into the arms of a teammate the victory, will seek to lead the Raiders on another tourney run.
As Watertown High School’s boys basketball team tries to return to the State Semifinal for a second straight year, the Raiders will host a first round game in the MIAA State Tournament on Tuesday.
The Raiders, who finished 14-6, earned the seventh seed in the Div. 3 North Section bracket, which was released Friday. Watertown will host 10th seed Essex Tech (10-10) at 7 p.m. on Feb. 27.
The winner of the Watertown-Essex Tech game will likely face second seeded Lynnfield (17-3), which takes on Swampscott in the first round.
The top seed in the North is St. Mary’s, which finished 17-3 and is ranked 17th in the Boston Globe Top 20. The Lynn-based parochial school won an appeal to the MIAA earlier this week that allowed them to be top seed. Peabody High School had contended that a student-athlete, 6-foot-5 Chibuikem Onwuogu, transferred to St. Mary’s without a waiver from his old school because Peabody officials contend that he was recruited by St. Mary’s.
The top seed in the South Section is undefeated Apponequet, which is ranked 20th by the Globe.