Seven Syracuse city high school basketball teams – five on the boys side, two on the girls side – qualified for the Section III playoffs that start this week. Of them, only one has a top seed – Syracuse Academy of Science, who lost last year’s Class D title game to New York Mills, only to get moved up to Class C this winter. As the no. 1 seed in the C-2 portion of the bracket with a 16-2 record, coach Onur Gokce’s Atoms, led by Dakeem McLain, DeOndray Tape and Kaleel Johnson, will face no. 8 seed Weedsport or no. 9 seed Sandy Creek in Friday night’s quarterfinal round. In the last week of the regular season, SAS beat Institute of Technology Central 94-80, despite the fact that the Eagles’ Jahcin Ingram poured in 40 points. ITC still finished with a 14-4 regular-season mark and debuts in the sectional playoffs as the no. 3 seed in Class C-2, where it will host no. 6 seed Little Falls in the quarterfinals on Friday. Both the ITC and SAS games start at 7 p.m. While that is going on, Henninger, in pursuit of its first sectional title since 2008, arrives as the no. 3 seed in Class AA with a whole lot of confidence. It recorded impressive home wins over West Genesee, Liverpool and Bishop Kearney in the last two weeks of the regular season, and in the Kearney game Tommie Spinner recorded a career-high 30 points. On Friday, the Black Knights will again meet West Genesee, the no. 6 seed, in the Class AA quarterfinals, one of three city schools in the sectional bracket. Nottingham, drawing the no. 10 seed, will meet no. 7 seed Liverpool in the opening round Wednesday to see who meets defending champion Cicero-North Syracuse in the quarterfinals. And Fowler, with the no. 8 seed, hosted no. 9 seed Fayetteville-Manlius on Tuesday, the winner going east to face top seed Utica Proctor. Moving to the girls basketball sectional tournament, Corcoran, beaten in last year’s finals by Cicero-North Syracuse, rose to the no. 2 seed in Class AA behind the Northstars. The Cougars get Fayetteville-Manlius or West Genesee in the quarterfinals on Thursday. Nottingham, the no. 9 seed, could meet CNS in the quarterfinals if it beats no. 8 seed Rome Free Academy in the first round Tuesday night.