We are one week away from the Metro Basketball Tournament. All top three teams clinched their division (Seattle Prep- Metro Mountain, Rainier Beach- Metro Sound, and Franklin- Metro Valley Division).

This week is by far the most intense and exciting part of the season. Teams like Ingraham, West Seattle and Bainbridge are all playing for a shot to participate in the Metro playoffs. 

SEE MORE ABOUT THE METRO CONFERENCE AFTER THE JUMP!

If you’re from Washington, you clearly know about the sizable snowstorm that hit the state this past week. Because of the storm, all but a few WesCo basketball games were canceled. Due to the short week, I decided to forgo my weekly power rankings in favor of a late-midseason roundup for the WesCo 3A and 4A conferences!

To keep it short, I will only be talking about teams that have winning records and are in clear contention for their conference or division. Also, these are in order by conference record, not personal input.

WesCo 3A:

Mountlake Terrace (14-0): Coming into the year, many expected the Hawks to be good, but not this good. 14-0 with just six games left? Pretty impressive. This team, unlike your usual basketball lineup, doesn’t really have a true leading scorer. There are three players averaging 10-plus points per game, and three more averaging just under 10. Terrace has outscored opponents 934-523 this year. If defense wins championships, what does offense and defense win you?
Rest of season strength of schedule: 3/10 The Hawks have only two games against teams with winning records.

WHO ROUNDS OUT THE TOP 5? FIND OUT AFTER THE JUMP! no comments

There was not much action last week in the Metro Conference due to the snow storm. We did, however, see some interesting gameplay early last Monday in the King Holiday Hoopfest.

Franklin dominated O’Dea and pulled off the upset. Franklin was the faster team and used that advantage on the fast break. The Irish did not come to play—they couldn’t shoot or play defense.

Rainier Beach suffered its first loss of the season in an electrifying game with Long Beach Poly (Calif.) in a battle of two squads each in ESPN’s national top 30. Poly’s dynamic duo of Roschon Prince and Jordan Bell was too much for the Vikings to handle in the first half. The second half was a different story: Rainier Beach’s Anrio Adams and Marquis Davis scored essentially all of their team’s second-half points in leading a late but ultimately unsuccessful comeback.

Seattle Prep blew out Federal Way in Hoopfest’s final contest. Prep came out attacking instantly and took advantage of Federal Way’s mistakes.

See my Power Rankings, Player of the Week and Predictions after the jump! no comments

Washington State 1A Basketball Rankings - 23 Jan. 2012

1. Granger, South Central (12-2)

A couple weeks ago, Granger faced Naches Valley in the most anticipated match of the 1A basketball season. Granger won the game 65-52 with a devastating full-court press and 20 points and five steals from dynamo Brandon Castro. The game handed Naches Valley its first loss of the season, solidifying Granger as the team to beat in 1A.

MORE AFTER THE JUMP!

The excitement and tension continued to build up in the Metro division after another week of league play. Bainbridge pulled off a big upset by defeating Eastside Catholic 79-72 in a thriller. Chris Bell scored 29 points for the Spartans, leading his team to its biggest win of the year.

What happened to the Crusaders? A couple of weeks ago they were the hottest team in Metro and were pushing to be with the elites of the division. Since the ugly loss to Rainier Beach, Eastside has lost winnable games to Lakeside and Bainbridge. Coach Bill Liley will need to go back to the drawing board and get the Crusaders back on track because the playoffs are right around the corner.

In the game of the week, Beach easily defeated Franklin, 80-72. The Vikings led the entire game and led by eighteen at one point. Franklin would not quit and made a late comeback, but the closest they would reach was within five points. Anrio Adams had a couple of flashy dunks and finished with 19 points — Adams got his teammates more involved and it paid off.

Check out the rest of action in the Metro Conference in my Power Rankings, Player of the Week and Predictions AFTER THE JUMP!

Compared to the last two weeks, this week was actually pretty boring. Terrace decimated Everett. Glacier Peak destroyed Meadowdale and Marysville Getchell. Jackson turned Marysville-Pilchuck into a showcase for their wide range of scorers, and, well, that’s about it. While teams didn’t do so great as a whole, there were many individual performances that stuck out.

Player of the Week: Michael Washington Jr., Oak Harbor (Senior)
Washington won POTW honors earlier this year with a 41-point performance against Everett. This week, Washington put up 52 combined points against Marysville Getchell and Shorecrest. Washington, a guard for the four-win Oak Harbor Wildcats, has averaged 20.6 points per game in his senior year, and has put up less than 15 points only three times this year.
Runners-Up: Cannen Roberson (Stanwood), Blake Fernandez (Mountlake Terrace)

READ MORE AFTER THE JUMP!

O'Dea guard Sekou Wiggs defends Seattle Prep forward Mitch Brewe in Friday's game. Photo Credit//Kevin Culala

After a long winter break, Metro basketball finally resumed last week in exciting fashion. Lakeside pulled off the upset against a surging Eastside Catholic team; the Lions are moving up in the rankings after winning six of their last seven games. (post the link to the article) Seattle Prep and O’Dea turned in another classic rivalry game. Prep dominated the first half, but O’Dea’s Sekou Wiggs took over and helped the Irish come with in one point entering the fourth quarter. The Panthers bounced back in the fourth quarter came out on top (49-46) over the Irish.

CHECK OUT MY POWER RANKINGS, PLAYER OF THE WEEK AND PREDICTIONS FOR WEEK 6 AFTER THE JUMP!

What a week. Jackson pulled a huge upset, with a 70-54 win over Snohomish, almost exactly like the 41-63 loss Snohomish suffered against Mountlake Terrace last week. It was all Jackson, all the way, holding Snohomish to 9 points the first two quarters, leading by 26 at the half.

Oh, but it doesn’t stop there. Stanwood came right back at Jackson, and pulled a small upset with a 57-53 victory. All of a sudden, the WesCo 4A conference has become a whole lot more interesting. Snohomish is back on top of the North division after Lake Stevens lost to Kamiak, 60-72, and Jackson is in the lead of the South (over Edmonds Woodway, who also suffered two losses).
All in all, WesCo looks a whole lot different this week than it did last week.

SEE THIS WEEK'S RANKINGS AND PLAYER OF THE WEEK AFTER THE JUMP!

1. Granger, South Central (9-1)
Granger saw its perfect record blemished with a 65-51 loss to a solid 2B White Swan team, but the Spartans have kept the top ranking in Class 1A for at least one more week. Their résumé is still the best in 1A with a win over Cashmere and dominating wins over nearly every other opponent.

But everything could change in perhaps the most anticipated 1A match this season on January 10 when Naches Valley hosts Granger in a game that could determine the fate of the South Central league. Granger needs to win this game to hold on to this number one spot, because after this matchup, outside of Zillah, they don’t play anyone near their level.

SEE TEAMS NO. 2 THROUGH NO. 10 AFTER THE JUMP

Seattle Prep guard D.J. Fenner rises up for a dunk in Friday's game against O'Dea. (Photo Credit//Kevin Culala)

Friday’s game at Seattle Prep did not disappoint. The atmosphere was electrics with a sold-out crowd and two entertaining student sections; Prep's student body was "blacked-out," while O'Dea's students showed up in a plethora of Halloween-esque costumes.

At the start of the game both teams couldn’t buy a bucket. Seattle Prep relied on their F Mitch Brewe to do all the work in the paint. With O’Dea lacking in height, Brewe took advantage of the mismatch that was given to him, scoring six of Prep’s ten first quarter points. O’Dea’s lack of experience took a toll on them in the beginning.

The Irish were outrebounded, turned the ball over and air-balled multiple shots. Prep was the dominant team; they continually shared the ball and found the open man.  When Prep G D.J. Fenner blew past an O’Dea defender for a slam dunk, the gym erupted leaving the O’Dea students in silence. Going into the half up by 26 to 9, Prep looked like they had this game locked up.

Entering the second half, most fans knew that O’Dea wouldn’t go down without a fight. G Sekou Wiggs wasn't going to settle for three points and a humiliating defeat. O’Dea was in this position before earlier in the season in a December game against Rainier Beach Beach, down seventeen points.

Just like the Beach game, O’Dea came out strong. Once Wiggs hit a three ball to open up the second half, the O’Dea student section started getting back into it. Before you knew it, the lead was only seven for Prep and O’Dea had all the momentum; pushing the ball after each defensive rebound and fighting for every loose ball.

Going into the fourth quarter O’Dea was only down by one point: 32-31. G Jalen Ward helped the Irish come back by controlling the tempo and dishing-out jaw-dropping no look assists. Seattle Prep started to find their groove again in the fourth quarter going back to their main weapon (F Mitch Brewe). G DJ Fenner also helped the Panthers extend the lead, knocking down key jumpers.

The biggest moment of the game came when G Ryan Caindec sank a three-point shot along the baseline to put the Panthers up 48-41 with less than a minute left. O’Dea extended the game after Prep missed critical free-throws; with an opportunity to tie or take the lead with ten seconds left, O'Dea was unable to execute. F Dana Abe struggled to catch a pass from G Jalen Ward which gave Prep the ball and chance to seal the game. G Jackson Clough hit one of two from the line to put Prep up three with about a second left. The Irish inbounded the ball, and G Sekou Wiggs heaved up a prayer hoping for a miracle, but came up short.

 Add another chapter to one of Seattle's most storied rivalries.

--Evan Baron (@BaselineBaron09)