GREEN TREE — Five Butler County high school basketball teams learned their opponents Tuesday night at the annual WPIAL Basketball Tournament meeting held at the Radisson hotel.

Only one knows when and where it is playing, however.

Freeport's boys (17-7, 9-3) will face Farrell (11-11, 7-7) in a Class AA play-in game at 8 p.m. Friday at Plum High School.

The other four county teams in the tourney — Butler, Seneca Valley and Mars girls, along with the Knoch boys — must wait until Thursday to learn the site, date and time of their respective first-round games.

The reason? This is the WPIAL's largest tournament since 1983 as 150 teams — 74 boys and 76 girls — are taking part.

"We added fourth-place teams in Class AA this year and that really increased the field," said Tim O'Malley, Butler athletic director and WPIAL Board of Control president.

There are eight play-in games for boys and nine games for girls scheduled this weekend in Class AA alone.

The nine-person WPIAL Basketball Committee, headed by Paul Holzshu of Shaler, needed extra time to sort out game venues and site availability.

"It doesn't matter all that much, really," Butler girls coach Dorothea Epps said of not knowing her game's site. "We know it's going to be at a large venue and against a quality team.

"Like everybody else, we just have to get ready to play."

The Golden Tornado (16-7, 9-5) will play Gateway (17-7, 11-3) in the first round in Class AAAA. Gateway played in Butler's Tip-Off Tournament this season, but did not face the Tornado.

Butler won its final three games, including road wins at Seneca Valley and New Castle, to reach the tournament.

Also in girls Quad-A, Seneca Valley (16-8, 10-4) takes on Hempfield (12-12, 11-3) in the first round. The Raiders defeated Hempfield 63-51 Dec. 12 in Harmony.

"That game was a long time ago," Raiders coach Todd Schoeffel said. "We'll look at these game tapes and see how much they've changed.

"What hurts us is that Hempfield's boys are also in (the tournament), so we'll probably be part of a doubleheader somewhere. It will be like a home game for them."

First-round opponents are required to exchange tapes of their final two regular season games.

Seneca Valley lost its final two regular season games, but was competitive against WPIAL powers in doing so. Once-beaten Mt. Lebanon downed the Raiders by two points and Hopewell, the No. 1 seed in Class AAA, defeated them by eight.

The Mars girls (19-5, 13-1) won their section under first-year head coach Dave Sylvester. The Planets face Keystone Oaks (10-13, 6-8) in a first-round Class AAA game.

Mars is in the bracket opposite of Hopewell. The Planets had an 11-game winning streak snapped by a 52-40 loss to Mt. Lebanon Monday night.

"You always hope you're in the opposite bracket of the top team," Mars athletic director Scott Heinauer said. "You never know what's going to happen with these pairings, though.

"My theory has always been you have to play them all eventually anyway."

Sylvester credited his players for Mars' success this year.

"You can't win without good players," he said. "I've had a lot of fun this year. There was a slight adjustment period, sure, but basically, we sat back and played to our players' strengths.

"We were in a summer league with Keystone Oaks, so we know their personnel a little bit. Honestly, I came down here with no clue what to expect."

Knoch's boys (15-7, 7-5) face South Park (11-13, 10-4) in the first round in Class AAA. The Eagles have won four of their past five games.

Knoch coach Les Shoop, retiring at the end of the season, needs two playoff wins to reach the 300-victory plateau with the Knights.

Knoch High School is the only Butler County school hosting any WPIAL playoff games this weekend. Knoch will host the Northgate-Neshannock Class AA girls game at 6:30 p.m. Friday, followed by the Burrell-Northgate Class AA boys at 8 p.m.

Notes:

There were no undefeated teams in the WPIAL this season. Eight teams went unbeaten in section play. … There are 44 schools with both boys and girls teams in the tournament. … There are 25 teams in the event with sub-.500 records. … Of the 150 teams in the field, 106 played in last year's tournament.