Boro Bounce February 10, 2020

With the postseason afoot, here's your update on the high school hardwood action around the boroughs and beyond. 

PSAL Playoffs

The PSAL regular season ended last week, and the seeds and game schedules for the borough tournaments were published on Friday. Not surprisingly, the top seeds are Boys & Girls (Brooklyn), Eagle Academy (Bronx), Thurgood Marshall Academy (Manhattan) and Cardozo (Queens). Opening round games start this afternoon (Monday), with the quarterfinals scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday), semifinals Thursday and the finals for Saturday, February 15th.

According to the PSAL's website, the Brooklyn and Manhattan borough championship games will be played at Uncommon Charter High School in Brooklyn, at 12:00 pm and 2:00 pm, respectively, while the Queens and Bronx borough finals will be played at Francis Lewis High School in Queens at 12:00 pm and 2:00 pm, respectively.

On Saturday the PSAL published the seeds for the girls playoffs. The top seeds were awarded to South Shore (AA), Brooklyn Law & Tech (A) and East New York Family Academy (B). Out bracket games for the A and B Division get underway this afternoon (Monday), and the dates for all playoff games are posted on the PSAL's website. For AA teams, opening round games do not start until Tuesday, March 3rd.

SIHSL Tournament

St. Peter's advanced to the semifinals of the SIHSL tournament with a 68-41 win over St. Joseph by the Sea on Sunday. Columbia commit Liam Murphy registered a double-double, going for 24 points and 14 rebounds. The Eagles will face Curtis in the semifinals on Wednesday. The Warriors topped MSIT 52-44 in the quarterfinals, with Eric Jarecki scoring 19 points for Curtis.

Monsigor Farrell also advanced to the semifinals, topping Port Richmond 67-50, with Justin Zieris leading the Lions with 19 points. Farrell will face New Dorp in the semifinals, as the Central Cougars topped Susan Wagner 55-34 in the quarters. Jah Ki Tull scored 24 points for New Dorp.

CHSAA Updates

After losing their first 4 league games and 5 of their first 6 in league play, Christ the King has emerged as one of the hottest teams in the boroughs. The Royals have now won 9 of their last 10, including a 61-60 comeback win at Molloy on Friday night and a 62-58 road triumph over CHSAA Brooklyn-Queens AA frontrunner Xaverian on Sunday.

At 7-6, Christ the King is suddenly just a game behind the Clippers (8-5) in the CHSAA B/Q standings with just three regular season league contests remaining. The Royals will face Holy Cross at home on Tuesday, Mount Saint Michael on the road on Thursday and nationally-ranked St. Raymond at home on Sunday. 

St. Francis Prep has won 7 straight, and the Terriers are sandwiched between Xaverian and Christ the King in the CHSAA B/Q standings at 7-5.  With 4 league games remaining, St. Francis Prep is in the hunt for the CHSAA B/Q regular season crown and the Terriers control their own destiny for at least a share if they win out. Four straight wins would be a tall order for St. Francis Prep considering their remaining league games: Iona Prep (home on Tuesday); Molloy (home on Friday); Monsignor Scanlan (away on Saturday) and Cardinal Hayes (away next Tuesday), but there will be margin for error with help from Xaverian and/or CTK. 

For Xaverian's part, the Clippers have dropped 2 of 3 since taking down Archbishop Stepinac on January 26th.

 

In mid-January it looked like Xaverian might run away with the regular season CHSAA B/Q title, but St. Francis Prep and Christ the King are now nipping at the heels of the Clippers. Like Christ the King, Xaverian has three league games left: at home against St. Raymond on Tuesday, at Bishop Loughlin on Friday and home against Holy Cross on Sunday. Like St. Francis Prep, the Clippers control their own destiny in the sense they can assure themselves at least a share of the regular season crown by winning all three of their remaining league contests.

Monsignor Scanlan secured its biggest win of the season on Sunday, edging nationally-ranked St. Raymond 70-69, with Dayton commit Koby Brea hitting the game-winner.

It was only the second league loss of the season for St. Raymond, the first coming in a 100-93 overtime thriller against Archbishop Stepinac played at Mount Saint Michael on December 15th. The Ravens are still in sole possession of the top spot in the CHSAA New York Archdiocese standings at 12-2, but the loss puts injury-ridden Stepinac right back in the mix for a share of the regular season title. The Crusaders rebounded from back-to-back losses to Iona Prep and Christ the King, earning wins over Mount (65-53) and Loughlin (80-48) without the services of McDonald's All-American RJ Davis, who received stitches under his left eye after a collision in the loss to Iona Prep and has been sidelined since. Stepinac has been playing without Duke commit Adrian Griffin Jr. since January 3rd, when he was injured in the first game against Iona Prep. 

St. Raymond remains in the proverbial driver's seat since the Ravens can lock up the regular season title outright by winning all three of their remaining games (at home against Xaverian on Tuesday, on the road against Christ the King on Sunday and at home against Monsignor Scanlan next Monday). As for Stepinac, the Crusaders play at Scanlan on Tuesday and are at home against Holy Cross on Friday. Even with two wins, Stepinac will need St. Raymond to lose two of their remaining three to take a share the regular season title, and, in theory, it is possible for the Crusaders to win the crown outright in the unlikely event that the Ravens drop all three. Since St. Raymond and Stepinac split their season series, a tie in the standings would require a tiebreaker for the top seed in the Archdiocese tournmanent. In 2018, Cardinal Hayes was awarded the top seed over Iona Prep when the point total of the St. John's-DePaul game was fittingly an odd number, compliments of a 3-pointer by Max Strus.

Regis went to New Rochelle on Friday night and handed Salesian its first league loss of the season, topping the first-place Eagles 62-56.

The win prevented Salesian from clinching the regular season CHSAA B Division title on Friday night, but that endeavor proved to be short-lived, as the second-place Raiders suffered a head-scratching 68-43 home loss to last-place Kennedy Catholic the very next day, giving the Eagles the regular season crown with a league record of 10-1. 

Xavier and St. Edmund Prep are both 11-3 atop the CHSAA A Division standings with two league games remaining for each squad. The Knights will visit All Hallows on Tuesday and Fordham Prep on Friday, while the Eagles are on the road at Cardinal Spellman on Tuesday and at Nazareth on Friday. Xavier and St. Edmund split their season series, so a dead heat will exist if both teams are still even after Friday.

LuHi tops Sierra Canyon

Beyond the boroughs, Long Island Lutheran took down Sierra Canyon 86-74, both teams nationally-ranked, in a game televised by ESPN on Saturday.

The coverage resulted in effusive praise for the performances of Ohio State commit Zed Key and Illinois commit Andre Curbelo, who surpassed the 1,000 career point milestone in the game.

The performance by the Crusaders showed a national audience what those around the boroughs were already aware of. To state the obvious, LuHi figures to be a tough out in the New York State Federation tournament, to be played next month at Fordham University.