The first Ohio Associated Press high school girls basketball poll of the 2021-22 season was announced Tuesday, and the Cardington-Lincoln Lady Pirates have been voted in at No. 3 among Div. III teams.
MaxPreps has also conducted its rankings and has Cardington-Lincoln as No. 4 in Division III and No. 21 among all Ohio schools.
The AP poll, which tallies the votes of a panel of sports writers and sports editor across Ohio, and OHSSA divisions has Division III coming in with the top five below:
1. Wheelersburg (2 first place votes) 10-0 104 points
2. Worthington Christian (3 first place votes) 10-1 82 points
3. Cardington-Lincoln 10-0 75 points
4. Wauseon 8-1 57 points
5. Arcanum (1 first place vote) 10-1 46 points
The MaxPreps rankings show Cardington-Lincoln at No. 4 in Div. III, behind Wheelersburg, Waynedale and Purcell Marian.
Statewide, MaxPreps ranks the Lady Pirates in the No. 21 slot, just behind No. 20 Purcell Marian of Cincinnati. MaxPreps uses computer-based rankings and does not poll coaches, sportswriters or fans. Nor does its staff make any judgments on the merits of any individual team. Prior season history, school size and comments on message boards are not considered in the MaxPreps computer rankings. The system utilizes the huge number of game results stored in the MaxPreps database. Generally, the more a team wins, the higher the ranking. However, the system takes into account quality wins (against other highly ranked opponents) and strength of schedule. For example, a team's ranking is hurt more by losing to a team that is ranked below it than a team ranked ahead.
Cardington-Lincoln began the year at 10-0 to run its winning streaks to 48 consecutive regular season wins and 62-straight KMAC wins (considered in the ranking). So far this season, the Lady Pirates have outscored their opponents 613-332.
The Lady Pirates played at Northmor on Wednesday and kept the streak alive, albeit barely, winning 56-53.
