City of Basketball Love

CoBL Staff (@hooplove215)
--

Can’t believe we are saying this, but the 2015-16 Pennsylvania high school basketball season is nearing the end of its regular season, with the beginning of district playoffs less than three weeks away.

This means the conference and league races around the area are heating up, as the contenders have separated themselves from the pack in the public and private school conferences.

Here’s Part 2 of a look around several of the area’s high school leagues with only a few games remaining on the schedule, focused on the Inter-Ac, PAC-10 and Suburban One League; Part 1, featuring the Catholic League, Central League and Ches-Mont League; was published earlier today:

~~~

Inter-Ac League
Halfway through the Inter-Ac regular season and with no league playoffs, the last five games of conference play will hold great importance in deciding who wins the league. After Germantown Academy fought off an upset from Malvern Prep last night, they joined Episcopal Academy in a two-way tie for first place, though EA has yet to play its fifth game due to the snow cancelling both the EA/SCH Academy and Penn Charter/Haverford School matchups that were scheduled for Friday night.

Both EA and GA have control of their own destiny; winning out will seal the deal for both teams, with the final meeting between the two coming on February 5. Germantown Academy is the three time defending champ, but they suffered a setback in pursuit of their four-peat by way of a 58-56 setback to Episcopal on Tuesday.

Coming in behind the Churchmen and the Patriots are the Friars of Malvern Prep, who are 3-2 in league play. In a league that has been mostly dominated by Germantown Academy the last three seasons, Malvern rode their depth to play GA in a tight 88-84 game that showed they were more than capable of pulling out an upset or two to make things interesting in the coming couple of weeks.

The three remaining teams, Penn Charter, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy and the Haverford School have some ground to make up in the last five games but don’t count anyone out just yet, with Haverford and Penn Charter still in striking distance of first place in they can put a run together. Things might have been a little bit different for the Fords this year if they hadn’t lost their three star players, one to graduation and two others to transfer.

With every team still having to play each other once more, the Inter-Ac league is going to be an interesting follow for the next couple of weeks. --Will Slover

~~~

Pioneer Athletic Conference
With the playoffs just nine days away, two of the four playoff spots have been clinched. The two clear best teams in the PAC-10, Spring-Ford and Phoenixville, are both 11-0 in league play and will play one another at Phoenixville Tuesday night. Spring-Ford will look to continue their eight game winning streak, while Phoenixville hopes to have PAC-10 leading scorer Christian Kelly back in the lineup after a hand injury sidelined him last week.

The other two PAC-10 final four spots are still up for grabs, and those spots will not be decided until the final night of league play, Friday, January 29th. In the Liberty division, the final spot will either be Boyertown or Perkiomen Valley, as they both have a 6-5 conference record. However, Boyertown has the much easier schedule, playing Pottsgrove (3-7) and at Methacton (4-7), while Perkiomen Valley still has to play Owen J. Roberts (3-7) and at Spring-Ford (11-0).

In the Frontier division, Pope John Paul II (5-5) could have clinched the division Friday night with a win over Pottstown (4-6), but the game was cancelled. PJPII will have a chance in the makeup game to clinch a final four spot. Should they lose, the door is then opened for Pottstown to sneak in if they could win against Pottsgrove (3-7) and Boyertown (6-5), and get one more loss from PJPII.

Spring-Ford, the winner of the Liberty division, will take on the runner-up from the Frontier, while Phoenixville will face either Boyertown or Perk Valley when the PAC-10 final four gets underway February 5th at Spring-Ford. Looking ahead to districts, Spring-Ford, Phoenixville, Boyertown, and Perkiomen Valley would seem to be in the best shape to make the AAAA playoffs. --Anthony Dabbundo

~~~

Suburban-One League
The Suburban One playoffs--like the PAC-10, Central and Ches-Mont--are limited to just four teams. This is only the second year that the SOL has held a league championship to bring together the best from the National, Continental and American, but it's decided on by formula, not by division; while the current breakdown makes it seem likely that all three division champions will make it as well as a wild-card, that doesn't necessarily have to happen.

The defending league champion, Abington is leading the way in the National division with a 9-1 league record, two games ahead of Council Rock North (7-3); the Indians get their shot at the Ghosts on Feb. 2 in their home gym, and have to hope that Abington drops another game either @ William Tennent (2-8), vs. Harry Truman (5-5) or @ Bensalem (5-5), who just pulled off an upset win over third-seed Pennsbury (6-4) to end the Falcons’ hopes at making a SOL playoff run. That’s the easiest of the three divisions to figure out.

Pennridge might have pulled off the decisive win in the Continental this week when they took advantage of Lafayette commit Cal Reichwein’s absence to beat Central Bucks West 63-60 on Tuesday; both teams are 9-1 in the division, but now the Rams hold the tiebreaker over the Bucks. CB West has the more difficult schedule remaining, having to play at third-place Hatboro Horsham (6-4) and the two teams tied behind them, @ Central Bucks East (5-5) and against Central Bucks South (5-5) in addition to North Penn (3-7); Pennridge gets North Penn and Hatboro at home while going to Souderton (2-8) and Quakertown (1-9).

Jim Donofrio stuck to his guns last year when he said that Plymouth-Whitemarsh wouldn’t participate in the SOL playoffs in order to rest up for districts, saying it was too many games too close together at the end of the season. Abington, which won both the SOL playoffs and then beat P-W in the district final, might have proven that theory wrong, but this year a rule change means that if P-W qualifies, they're playing. That is, of course, if Cheltenham--also 9-1 but on the wrong side of a 64-62 buzzer-beater at P-W earlier in January--doesn't steal the rematch on Feb. 2 and seize the auto-bid. Upper Merion, at 6-4 and in third place, is almost mathematically eliminated from contention having lost to Cheltenham twice this year. --Josh Verlin