SOUTH MADISON COUNTY — The benefit of the sectional tournament bye not only makes the route shorter for a team’s quest of a title and regional berth, it also gives them a little extra time during the week on the practice floor.

Pendleton Heights and Lapel, both of whom drew byes in their respective seven-team sectionals, wrapped up their regular seasons last week.

The Arabians split their two games, while the Bulldogs went 1-2.

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Time on the practice floor getting ready for a Friday sectional semifinal game will be crucial.

Other teams will play Tuesday and Wednesday. Pendleton Heights and Lapel will know their opponents after Tuesday’s first-round games.

“It absolutely is going to help us,” Pendleton Heights first-year head coach Adam Ballard said. “I have never had a huge feeling one way or the other about having the bye or playing in the first round. For our team, this year, having those extra days of practice is a huge help.”

Ballard said he likes where his team stands.

During the final week of the regular season, the Arabians defeated a strong Class 2A program, Eastern Hancock, 69-46, before losing Thursday, Feb. 25, at home, in the regular season and Hoosier Heritage Conference finale, to Yorktown, 68-64.

Though a loss, Ballard saw plenty of good things to build on in his club’s final game before the tournament.

“I feel like we’re playing well and our team is coming together at the right time,” Ballard said. “We’re starting to see some things and figuring some things out. That’s probably our biggest take away from Yorktown.

“We did a lot of things well and a lot of things we needed to do, but there were just some little details holding us back, like always being in position defensively, always blocking out, always communicating. Little things like that, if we sharpen those things up, I really think we can make some noise this week.”

Ballard’s club will play 6 p.m. Friday in the first of two semifinals of Class 4A Sectional 9, at Richmond High School’s Tiernan Center.

Pendleton Heights (8-14) will play the winner of Tuesday’s Anderson-Muncie Central game. If the Arabians win on Friday, they will play for a sectional championship at 7 p.m. Saturday night.

With not starting tournament play until Friday, the Arabians are hoping they will be closer to full strength. Junior two-year starter Luke Candiano, the team’s second leading scorer at 11.1 points per game, has been out since a Feb. 19 game against Shenandoah.

They also played without sophomore starter Gabe Simons (5.6 points, 3.4 rebounds) against Yorktown.

Early in the week, Ballard said neither had been cleared for full practice and the players availability for Friday would be a game-time decision.

After starting the week off with a 75-74 double-overtime win against New Castle, Lapel dropped its final two games, a 71-47 decision to Tipton, on Thursday, and a 65-64 contest to Union City, a late addition to the Lapel schedule, played Saturday.

The Union City game was Lapel’s fourth one-point game of February. It had four other games during the season decided by five points or less, including another one-pointer. Lapel went 3-2 in the games decided by one point and 4-4 in the contests that were five points or closer.

Coach Justin Coomer, who took over the program when long-time coach Jimmie Howell retired at the end of 2020, mentioned after the draw he had a young team without a lot of post season experience, but he does have a team that has a lot of experience playing in tight games.

You’re hoping it is a benefit,” Coomer said of playing their share of wire-to-wire games prior to tournament action. “The schedule we play is really good, some of those good teams we played tough, but we just couldn’t get over the hump. Hopefully that experience in close games against pretty good teams pays off in the end.”

Lapel (8-15) will be playing in the 6 p.m. semifinal game Friday of Class 2A Sectional 40, at Elwood. They await the winner of Tuesday’s Winchester-Wapahani matchup.

Coomer said he hopes his team can take advantage from the extra practices, though they won’t get a head start on working on an opponent, noting both Winchester and Wapahani are talented, but very different teams.

They’ll take the early part of the week and look specifically on how to make the Bulldogs better.

“(We have to get better) defensively and we have to keep people out of the paint,” Coomer said. “Our (defensive) help has to be there. Shots are going to come and go, but you have to be able to play defense and get stops. Defensively is what we are keying in on this week.”