View the MPSSAA boys basketball tournament brackets.

The Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association on Sunday released the brackets for the regional basketball playoffs, which get under way Friday with first-round games.

The teams with the four best records in each region earned first-round byes and will begin play in the quarterfinals next week. The remaining teams were placed into the brackets by a random draw and will play Friday.

Here is an overview of the boys basketball regional tournaments that include schools from The Gazette's coverage area, Frederick, Montgomery and Prince George's counties:

4A West

No. 1 seed Magruder (20-1), No. 2 seed Churchill (17-4) and No. 3 seed Clarksburg (13-8) earned byes.

No. 4 seed Wootton (13-9) wasn't so lucky. By virtue of Sunday's draw, the Patriots will play Friday against Walter Johnson (10-9), one of the 13-team region's three unseeded teams with a winning record.

“This is always a sort of comical time of year for coaches, I think,” Wooton coach Chris Bohlen said. “All of us are very results oriented, and we sit and we look at the regular's season results and like, hey, the kids earned X, whatever it might be. The whole random-draw thing is something I don't think any coach likes.”

But don't mistake Bohlen's dislike of the process as a problem with facing Walter Johnson, which split its two regular-season matchups with Wootton.

“I was excited,” Bohlen said of his reaction to hearing the draw. “With the exception of those top two or three, you're going to have to come out and play against anybody. To say one team's better than another just because of their record, I don't think really fits this year.”

Bethesda-Chevy Chase (12-10) is scheduled to play Walt Whitman, and Northwest (11-10) is scheduled to play Quince Orchard.

4A North

Springbrook (18-3) took the No. 1 seed and was the only one of Montgomery County's four schools in the 12-team region to earn a seed.

Blake (16-5) is scheduled to play Baltimore-Poly. Sherwood (15-7) is scheduled to face Perry Hall, and Paint Branch (14-7) will face Dulaney.

4A South

Charles H. Flowers (16-4), Roosevelt (18-4), DuVal (15-6) and Wise (15-6) earned the top four seeds and first-round byes.

Suitland (13-7) will play host to High Point and Bowie (12-9) is scheduled to play Bladensburg in the first round.

3A West

No. 2 seed Urbana (17-4) and No. 3 seed Tuscarora (17-5) earned first-round byes.

No. 4 seed Linganore (14-6) is scheduled to play Thomas Johnson in the first round.

Seneca Valley (13-9) is scheduled to play Damascus, and Watkins Mill (12-10) will take on Einstein.

3A South

After winning just four games last season, Potomac went 16-6 this winter and earned the No. 2 seed. With only nine teams in the region, Friendly got a bye despite its 9-13 record. Crossland (9-13) is scheduled to play La Plata in the only first-round game.

2A West

No. 1 seed South Carroll (17-4), No. 3 seed Poolesville (13-8) and No. 4 seed Oakdale (14-8) received first-round byes.

If South Carroll and Oakdale both win their quarterfinals, they will have a rematch of Oakdale's overtime win on its home floor against the Cavaliers in January. A potential second matchup would occur at South Carroll.

“My kids would probably be a little bit motivated to get revenge,” South Carroll coach Doug Goff said. “It's just not personal to me.”

2A South

No. 1 seed Gwynn Park (17-5) and No. 2 seed Largo (18-4) both earned first-round byes. They Prince George's County 3A/2A/1A League rivals split their two regular season games against each other and shared the league title.

Gwynn Park is scheduled to play Prince George's 4A League champion Flowers on Wednesday in the county championship game at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Henry A. Wise High in Upper Marlboro as a tune-up for the playoffs.

“That's our singular goal right now,” said Glick, whose team earned a berth in the county title game ahead of Largo on a coin flip. “We'll worry about the state playoffs on Thursday.”

Glick said his top goal each season is to secure the No. 1 seed, and the luxury of a home game would boost Gwynn Park if it has a rubber match with Largo in the region final.

“We'll focus on Largo if we get there,” Glick said.

Central (11-9) is scheduled to play Calvert in the first round.

1A West

The region is split into East and West Sectionals. Brunswick (10-10) has the No. 2 seed in the East Sectional and will be idle until Feb. 28 when the Railroaders will face the winner of Friday's game between No. 3 Clear Spring and Manchester Valley.

1A South

No. 4 seed Forestville (8-11) earned a first-round bye and awaits the winner of Friday's game between Surrattsville and W.E.B. DuBois.

dfeldman@gazette.net