Large Schools
1. St. Joe's (AA) - After earning the sweep of the defending champs from Timon, the Marauders went on to win three more games in four days, ending with a win at a now full-strength Aquinas on Sunday. They'll honor the seniors against Park on Tuesday, before beginning preparations for a Date Night special with their sweethearts from Delaware Ave on Valentine's Day.
2. Canisius (AA) - Well, well, well look at how this one set up. After knocking off Park & St. Mary’s by a combined 68 points, the Crusaders flipped the script on Timon and won their 5th straight regular season game in South Buffalo by 19 points. The victory sets up Canisius for the top seed in the Manhattan Cup Playoffs if they can win out. They host St. Francis, who they haven’t lost to since 2017, before the grand Valentine exchange on Kenmore Ave Friday night.
3. Niagara Falls (AAA) - Missing a pair of starters and their sixth man, the Wolverines went on the road against state ranked East High of Rochester and got smoked. They will look for a bounce back when at home against Tapestry before their final regular season road trip out of state in Baltimore for a tournament over the weekend.
4. Timon (AA) - Bounced back with a victory over Bishop Grimes after a pair of losses at St. Joe’s and then at home against Canisius. The Tigers finish up league play this week hosting O’Hara and St. Francis before a Friday night date at Nichols.
5. Jamestown (AAA) - Picked up victory over Park & Lancaster last week with a trip to Frontier coming up before a Friday night showdown with Rochester’s best from Rush-Henrietta.
6. Williamsville South (A1) - Earned the sweep over district rival Williamsville East, with another double-digit thumping of the Flames. The Billies are at Starpoint & Hamburg this week.
7. Orchard Park (AA1) - A pair of double-digit road victories at Clarence & Lake Shore for the Quakers gave the team 16 victories on the season. Monday night could be a preview of the Class AA1 final when Lockport visits. OP also has a road trip to Williamsville North, where they lost last season, along with a home game against Frontier.
8. Health Sciences (AA2) - Maybe Big Health is starting to find their form by taking on teams from Rochester, after dropping Franklin by 31 before letting a halftime lead over state ranked Rush-Henrietta slip in a 10 point loss. The Falcons have Bennett, I-Prep and City Honors this week.
9. Lockport (AA1) - A 5-point loss at Ken West forced me to take a serious look at dropping the Lions from the rankings in favor of the Blue Devils. The teams split a pair of games this season and I am deciding to keep Lockport in ahead of them, more so due to recent losses for KW at the hands of Williamsville East & Williamsville North. The Lions get the spot ahead of Amherst, who they defeated head-to-head and Amherst is also a team Ken West lost to. Coming up are games at Orchard Park on Monday night, hosting North Tonawanda on Wednesday, and then a trip to Lew-Port to finish the week.
10. Amherst (A1) - Took down Pioneer & Starpoint by a combined 31 points and now have three home games left in their season, with a pair coming up this week against Hamburg & Sweet Home.
Small Schools
1. Salamanca (B2) - The Southern Tier showed up in force again, heading up to Depew on Monday and leaving with a 35-point victory. Then, in a classic CCAA I West showdown, the Warriors got out of Gator territory with a three-point victory. Still no local losses this season for Salamanca.
2. Westfield (C) - Two road games and two more wins for the Wolverines, by 28 at Maple Grove & 11 points at Chautauqua Lake. Brocton is next on the list in Westfield this week.
3. Randolph (C) - Spoiler alert… The Cardinals won two more league games by a combined 108 points. The victims shall go nameless. They will get a stiff test when they jump up several classifications and take a road trip to Hamburg on Thursday night.
4. Panama (D) - There’s a reason Van Halen wrote a song about these guys. A 21-point victory vs Gowanda, a 37-point win over Brocton and a 31-point win at Clymer. This week they take on Sherman and visit Frewsburg, along with a rematch against Falconer, who they handled earlier this season at JCC.
5. Akron (B1) - Took the rematch with a strong fourth quarter against Roy-Hart in a 12-point victory. They'll look to complete the sweep of Barker & Newfane this week with road trips, before taking the short drive to Alden to wrap up the week.
6. Allegany-Limestone (B2) - The return of Carson Kwiatkowski is beyond significant for the fortunes of the squad, as demonstrated by nearly knocking off Salamanca on Friday. Let’s not forget these guys were undefeated prior to his injury just before halftime at Salamanca earlier this season. Just fair warning for the other teams in Class B. The week ahead is a grinder with three tough opponents: Olean, Fredonia, and the long trip north to take on the Jacks in their Lumberyard.
7. Fredonia (B1) - Earned the rivalry victory at Dunkirk after a 4-point loss in Olean. This week they host Southwestern & Allegany-Limestone.
8. MST (B2) - Downed I-Prep by 41 points in their only game last week. They will have their hands more than full against Middle College this week, along with games against Buffalo Arts & Bennett.
9. Olmsted (B1) - In a rematch with Hutch Tech, this time the Engineers were able to complete the comeback after the Owls led for 3 quarters. They returned to form with a 40-point victory over Maritime and a 17-point win at Riverside, before falling by the same margin at Nichols. They take trips to Burgard & Starpoint this week, before a game against East played at MST.
10. Middle College (B1) - They just beat McKinley, who had just beaten Health Sciences in a rematch. Then they knocked off a pretty decent Lake Shore team by 15 points, then they went into East and won by 35. These Kats still have a few lives left, and I don’t see any of those expiring before a postseason run. The game against MST this week should be a fun one, before finishing up the week against Buffalo Culinary.
-🏀centercourt🏀
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