City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The Public League playoffs underway, with the majority of the teams taking part in yesterday’s first round.

Each of the Pub’s five divisions are mixed together for the playoffs, which are divided by PIAA classification. With the state splitting into six classes this year, it’s thrown off the format somewhat, which used to pit the four classification champions against each other in the Pub semifinals.

With six “quarterfinalists” this year, the top-two seeded programs (Imhotep and Del-Val Charter are the top two overall seeds) will get byes as the other four classification champions battle it out for the right to face them in the semifinals.

The next round takes place tomorrow afternoon/evening, which will narrow each classification field from four to two. The Class A championship, whose participants have already been determined, will pit 1-seed Sankofa Freedom Academy against 2-seed Parkway Northwest on Friday at the HS of the Future, with tipoff at 4:00 PM; the 2A championship will follow with Wednesday’s winners.

The 3A-6A classifications will also have their championships that day, on the home court of the higher seed.

Here are Wednesday’s matchups (class seedings in parentheses):

Class 2A
(2) Math, Civics & Sciences vs. (3) Motivation (4:00 PM, MLK Rec)
(1) Constitution vs. (4) Masterman (5:30 PM, Ben Franklin)

Class 3A
(1) Del-Val Charter vs. (5) Strawberry Mansion (3:15 PM)
(2) Parkway CC vs. (3) World Communications (4:00 PM, Cunningham)

Class 4A
(1) Imhotep vs. (4) Bartram (6:00 PM)
(2) Audenreid vs. (3) West Philadelphia (3:15 PM)

Class 5A
(1) Mastery North vs. (4) Mastbaum (3:15 PM)
(2) Martin Luther King vs. (3) Simon Gratz (5:00 PM)

Class 6A
(1) Lincoln vs. (4) Washington (3:15 PM)
(2) Frankford vs. (3) Central (3:15 PM)

~~~

“Quarter”-Finals (Top two seeds get bye)
Wed., Feb. 15, South Philadelphia (4 PM/5:30 PM)

Semifinals
Sat., Feb. 18, HS of the Future (12 PM/4 PM)

Championship
Thurs., Feb. 23, Saint Joseph’s University (TBD)