By MATT TRABOLD
TRABS KEEPS TABS
Seeding Point Scenarios on this Final Day of the Regular Season
As with essentially any legitimate sporting league as it comes down to the very end of play in the regular season, there are going to be a group of teams vying against each other for better postseason seeding spots on the very last day of competition of that regular season. This occurrence happens every year across this country and the world as a whole. It will continue to happen long into the future. It is a numbers game.
For example, the penultimate day of action this Section V boys basketball regular season saw its fair share of results that solidified important seeding scenarios even though there was still one day of action left before sectional brackets would be ready to be constructed. On Wednesday, East High put up 105 points against World of Inquiry to get its hands on a victory by a whole fifty points. That result gave both those Eagles and Northstar Christian a 19-1 regular season final record and a regular season winning percentage of 95.0 percent.
Not only did that fifty-point slugging give East High that tie, but it also gave that side one last vital regular season burst of seeding points from inside the section. That development consequently gave Darrell Barley’s group a superior sectional points average in comparison to Northstar Christian and the top seed over those Knights in the Class A2 sectional bracket this time around. One of the reasons why Northstar Christian ended up with a lesser sectional points average here is due to playing more games against opponents from outside Section V than East High this go-around. Class D1 in this section had a similar incident play out yesterday. Avoca got revenge on Prattsburgh for a loss by a point earlier in the season by taking down those Vikings by two tallies last night. That triumph narrowly prevented Mount Morris from surpassing Avoca in the standings to get the top seed in this upcoming Class D1 postseason bracket.
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With the seeding scenarios for this sport and section that will come into play on this final day of action of this regular season, they range all the way to the top with Class AA. At the moment, both Hilton and Gates-Chili sit atop those particular classification standings with a 16-3 regular season record and a regular season winning percentage of 84.2 percent. That makes it imperative for both to end their regular season with winning ways for a shot at being the top seed in the classification come sectional bracket time here very soon. While Gates-Chili gets to square off with a Churchville squad they beat by double figures earlier in the campaign, Hilton is up against a Fairport team that pretty recently beat McQuaid Jesuit by thirteen points and Rush-Henrietta by seventeen points.
Not far down the classification size pecking order around these parts is Class A1. A portion of the present standings for that classification that will undoubtedly be dealing with one of these seeding scenarios today involves the fourth spot and fifth spot there. The No. 4 spot there currently belongs to Churchville with a record of 10-9. The No. 5 spot there currently belongs to Eastridge with a record of 10-8. The Lancers have the superior winning percentage, but the sectional points average nod goes to the Saints at the moment. While Eastridge gets to finish its regular season this time through with an opposing team from Class B1 in Batavia, Churchville will have to achieve its preferred fate against Class AA power Gates-Chili. Speaking of Class B1, Greece Odyssey and Newark currently hold the top two spots in those standings, respectively, with the former having a record that is a half-game up on the latter at this very moment.
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Greece Athena at Pittsford Sutherland—Thurs., Feb. 14, 7:15 PM
On Tuesday, Greece Athena was looking to get back to its winning ways after having its eight-game winning streak snapped in massive fashion by still undefeated Pittsford Mendon this past Friday, but the Trojans’ penultimate game this regular season against Brighton was one of the many, many scheduling casualties of the most recent ice storm to hit the area. It was no matter though because the rescheduled game on Wednesday went the way of the Trojans by fifteen points despite Brighton leading after one half of play. With all the size up front that Pittsford Sutherland brings to the table, this will be an important game for the likes of senior captain Johnny Salone and 6-foot-3 sophomore Austin Brown. With his noticeably big wingspan and defensive ferocity, the 6-foot-2 Salone actually plays like one of the tallest players in the section. Brown has more than proven in a variety of stretches this campaign already that he is arguably the top candidate to be the go-to option for this program in two seasons, but he should still be vital this go-around if Mike Setzer’s club is going to make a postseason run due to the current roster not boasting anyone 6-foot-5 or taller like Anthony Lamb or Ryan Kubanka.
Even though the result was a setback for the squad, Pittsford Sutherland surprising many around the section with a loss by just a single point in the first meeting this season between these two groups on January 18 was right up there in terms of the Knights’ finest outings this campaign so far with the wild comeback in the second half at the Louis A. Alexander Palestra against rival Pittsford Mendon, beating Class AA powerhouse Gates-Chili by sixteen points and taking down Leadership Academy for Young Men at East High by 22 points. This season, when Pittsford Sutherland urgently needs a triple try to go through late in a close one or is in a situation where the team is likely to be fouled with not much time left and needs to ice it at the charity stripe, John Nally and his staff usually turn to the poised John Luther.
Greece Odyssey at Greece Olympia—Thurs., Feb. 14, 7:15 PM
Joey Tisa’s men entered the week winners of five consecutive ballgames, with three of those victories coming against foes that had beaten them earlier in the season in Eastridge, World of Inquiry and Honeoye Falls-Lima. The squad had a similar situation against Batavia this week, which beat Greece Olympia back on January 11 by ten points, postponed from Tuesday to Wednesday due to the aforementioned ice storm. The theme will continue on the final day of this regular season across the section as these Spartans do battle with crosstown opposition in the form of Greece Odyssey. The Leopards won huge against Greece Olympia on January 18 by 25 points, but the home side in this contest is twice the caliber of team it was back then. Jeff Jung Jr. and Collin James are certainly the top scoring threats for Greece Olympia right now, but Ehnoc Tossah has had his offensive game improve significantly since the beginning of his junior go-through to go along with his defensive strengths.
Greece Odyssey struts into this matchup of schools that share a football team with a premium four-game winning streak that most recently included beating a more than strong 13-7 School of the Arts side by eighteen points on Monday and running over a Honeoye Falls-Lima group that just upset Class A2 stalwart Wayne Central this past weekend by a whopping 27 points yesterday. Something to watch in this crosstown game is whether or not the Leopards display any wear and tear with this being their third outing of the week, and a short week at that. Collin James is a big front line body for Greece Olympia these days, so bruising and tireless 6-foot-3 senior Aric Williams will be pivotal here. 6-foot-2 junior Jaden Hartsfield is Jim Guzielek’s longest guard, so his body type in connection with the particular roster Greece Olympia has at its disposal right now is another key factor in this contest.
Churchville at Gates-Chili—Thurs., Feb. 14, 7:15 PM
My oh my, that was quite a span of two ballgames and six days that Churchville just went through. After being upset on Friday by a Canandaigua team that came into the game winless on the year, these Saints did the upsetting Wednesday evening. Tim Miller’s forces welcomed in the storied, especially recently, program of Irondequoit to their home court yesterday and shocked some locals with an upset victory versus the Eagles by a point. Volleyball star Griffen Stella and arguably Marcellus James are focal points more in the current Churchville backcourt, but Kamerin Poromon and Terrence Wilson have been emerging rapidly of late. Poromon has the ability to be deadly off the dribble. Wilson was the one who beat Irondequoit last night at the end with him being credited for the contest-winning bucket from deep with only three seconds to go in regulation. It should come as no surprise to onlookers at Churchville games this campaign that Marcus Postell rocks a chunky mouth guard. His style of play absolutely requires it. Marcus is rough and tumble enough to play significantly taller than his 6-foot-2 height.
Terrence Wilson hits the game winning 3 pointer with :03 left, then steals the in bound pass to seal the win for our Saints boys basketball team 61-60 in a thriller over Irondequoit tonight.
— CCCSD Athletics (@CCCSDathletics) February 14, 2019
Over the last few games, Gates-Chili has not quite been as powerful as it has been through most stages of this season up to his point. Spencerport and Webster Thomas are presently a combined ten games under .500, but these Spartans only advanced past them by a cumulative four points in their last two ballgames. That includes surviving by a single point last night against those Titans. The game before that, Gates-Chili picked up a loss against University Preparatory Charter School for Young Men. A big asset, especially when Gates-Chili is trying to sustain a lead in a fourth quarter, for Terry Nowden and his staff this year is having a whole trio of lightning-quick guards in Keith Slack, Devin Walton and Traylan McCray.
Brockport at Brighton—Thurs., Feb. 14, 7:15 PM
Brighton might be coming into this battle as losers of eight outings in a row, but a portion of that losing streak exhibited plenty of promise. Three of those defeats came by only one point to Franklin, only one point to Honeoye Falls-Lima and a mere four points to Greece Olympia. Brockport might be fairly known this campaign for having a variety of quality defensive pieces, but these Barons have a couple of guards in particular that have shown an ability to stretch a defense through swarms of successful perimeter shooting on a number of occasions this season up to this point. That pair is 6-foot-1 junior Agathia Visveswaran and senior Najeeb Awad. Another unique backcourt piece for David Tisa and his staff is 5-foot-10 Casey McDermott. Casey is a Johns Hopkins lacrosse commitment, but he is getting a lot of playing time with this basketball program. McDermott is not particularly tall or lengthy, but he has the bulk to throw down the physical gauntlet and even overpower at times a wide array of different types of opposing guards.
If you are going to fall by 22 points in a Section V boys basketball game this season, the best case scenario is probably for it to come against the only team across the section that is still undefeated with one day of action left in the overall regular season in Pittsford Mendon. A silver lining of Brockport’s loss to those Vikings yesterday is that Brighton, and just about every other team in these parts, is going to feel like a much easier foe in comparison. Not even getting into height, the Brighton front line is certainly not the thickest in the section. That is where 6-foot-5 Brockport senior Ishmael Hannah comes in. Hannah is burly enough to stuff the lane properly against most opposing teams, and he can get off of the floor for a defensive effort in a hurry with ease.
Wayne Central at Newark—Thurs., Feb. 14, 7:30 PM
Bill Thomson’s boys will be looking to end their regular season on a positive note after they went on the road to Honeoye Falls-Lima this past weekend and shockingly fell against a team that had a record below .500 at the time. These Eagles had reigned supreme in nine ballgames in a row going into that one. 6-foot-5 senior big man Nick Carmichael is as much the Tim Duncan of Section V boys basketball currently as Wilson Magnet’s Malikk Johnson is. He is not the top frontcourt leaper in the section right now, but he is so surgical and productively precise around the tin with both hands and a wide, wide variety of post moves. His trenches mate in 6-foot-3 Jaiden Burlee has been a reliable new addition to the starting lineup this season with his dedication to making a possession productive for his side on either end. The go-to guy for Wayne Central yet again though is 6-foot-5 guard Logan Blankenberg. The guy can just do everything offensively relative to this level of the sport.
The presently 15-3 Reds are powering ahead at the moment behind a six-game unbeaten streak. Newark gave that Wayne Central club a very tough game in the first meeting between these two forces this year, with Henry Kuperus’s battalion picking up a loss by a mere six points. On top of that, Newark has actually picked up a pair of wins so far this season against a side from one of the Class A classifications or higher. Those victories were part of Newark’s winning streak of five ballgames to start this campaign, with an eight-point win over Canandaigua immediately followed up by a win over Victor. 6-foot-2 senior wing Jayden Peters, with his much shorter hair this season, has done a fantastic job this year taking over the top option reins from Taylor Clements. Another recent staple of this program in fellow senior Mason VanDeMortel is very fundamentally sound in the way he breaks down oppositions.
SECTION V IN DIVISION I UPDATE
Brian Fobbs—Jr., Towson (Bishop Kearney)
While Brian is not a rookie when it comes to being a college basketball player in general, he is a rookie this season as it pertains to the highest division of the sport. That fact is why it has been so pleasantly surprising to watch him work, and work well, this season for Towson. Not only is Fobbs the sole Tiger averaging scoring in double digits right now this campaign, his present scoring average of 16.8 points an outing is just about nine points an outing higher than the scoring average of the second guy on the list. Fobbs is currently seventh in the conference, the Colonial Athletic Association, in scoring average. That puts him up there with nationally elite names like Justin Wright-Foreman of Hofstra and Nathan Knight of William & Mary. Last time out, Brian pulled off the blistering scoring line of 29 points against James Madison, including only missing four of his fifteen shot attempts from the field and only missing three of his seven shot attempts from downtown.
Anthony Lamb—Jr., Vermont (Greece Athena)
Lamb has now scored in the twenties in each game since returning from a short injury stint four ballgames ago. The most recent one of those performances, on Wednesday, saw him bust forward for an efficient twenty points, six rebounds and a pair of steals against New Hampshire. This past weekend on Saturday against rival Albany, Anthony was even better with 26 points, fourteen rebounds and four blocks. Whenever Lamb is mentioned in this column, it has to be noted how well he is faring in the national shot-blocking statistical list for it is so impressive how far he has come over the past few years protecting the rim. The 6-foot-6 former Trojan is No. 26 in the country as you read this in shot-blocking average with 2.2 blocked shots per contest.
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