Editor's Note: Patrick Leary wasn't able to write this week's Metro basketball column, so I volunteered my efforts, enjoy!

Last night's results:
O'Dea 72 Seattle Prep 61
Franklin 78 Rainier Beach 70
Chief Sealth 61 Eastside Catholic 50
Lakeside 57 West Seattle 42

That was a shocker. Who could see Franklin taking down Rainier Beach? Injuries have hurt Beach during the post season the past couple of seasons. And things are starting to fall apart again this year. The Stewart teams must be that important to this team. Hennings, a 5'9" sophomore guard hasn't scored more than 20 points since January 21st. All of a sudden, Franklin has played themselves into a district-game bye, which is huge for any team's chances at state, especially in the SeaKing district. Just ask any coach in Metro how important it is to get that first round bye, it's crucial.

Dustin Watts returned for the Irish, and as predicted, O'Dea came out on top with another ten point victory over the Panthers. Seattle Prep now gets Rainier Beach for third place, and more importantly, they'll be playing for the final first round bye game in districts. This game will be a dog fight. These teams last met in early December, with Beach coming on top with a 63-53 win. If the Stewart twins are out again for this game, Seattle Prep has a good chance. Scoring inside hasn't been a problem at all, but it's just a question if they are going to get any production out of their guards.

The last time Chief Sealth and Lakeside met, the Seahawks came out with an 18 point win. Can Lakeside slow the game down and force Chief Sealth to score in the half-court? Lakeside is more than capable to win this game, but they are going to need a third scorer to emerge behind Kyle McAndrews (15.5ppg) and Lewis Cramer (11ppg) for this to happen.

Eastside Catholic should take care of West Seattle. The Crusaders have won three of their last four games. This team has played up to its potential this year and needs to continue to play at high level in order to pull off an upset or two at districts.

Last but not least, we have the championship game between Franklin and O'Dea. It'd be easy to write the Quakers off, but this team is riding a four game winning streak. O'Dea won by 26 in their league match up, but I just don't see the Irish rolling over Franklin that easy this time around. Franklin head coach Jason Kerr will not let that happen. With that said, O'Dea has been steady this whole season, and they'll likely take this game because of their athleticism and scoring options on the offensive end.

Here's the schedule for the rest of games:

Thursday February 10th
Seattle Prep at Rainier Beach 7:00pm (Third Place Game)
West Seattle at Eastside Catholic 7:00pm (Seventh Place Game)
Lakeside at Chief Sealth 7:00pm (Fifth Place Game)

Friday February 11th
O'Dea vs. Franklin at Seattle Pacific University (Metro Championship)

Player of the week: Malik Barnes, Ingraham: Barnes had a solid week against pretty sub-par competition.  He scored 23 in a loss to Cleveland Tuesday, scored a season high 33 against Blanchet in the Rams’ first conference win of the season, and scored 20 more in the rematch with with Cleveland Saturday, which Ingraham also lost.  76 points is a lot for one week, but who else can do it like Barnes for Ingraham this year?

Conference records in parenthesis 

1.  O’Dea (13-1): The Irish have been absolutely stellar this year, but they took a hit last week, as senior point guard and floor general Dustin Watts mysteriously did not play in their three games last week.  The Irish won all three in blowout fashion over Blanchet, Franklin, and Lakeside, but Watts’ importance for the Irish in the playoffs cannot be understated.  From what I’ve been able to dig up, Watts is academically ineligible. This will be a huge blow for the Irish if it lasts.  O’Dea plays a huge game against Seattle Prep Tuesday and then finishes the season with senior night against Blanchet.  Grades aside, I hope the Irish let Watts play on his senior night, because he’s been such a contributor in his years with the program. He deserves it.

2. Rainier Beach (13-0): If an undefeated conference team has ever flown under the radar, Beach is that team.  Because of their loss to Garfield, Beach has lost a bit of their state-wide hype to O’Dea, who beat the Bulldogs in December. But the Vikes went 4-0 last week with easy victories over Blanchet, Lakeside, Bainbridge, and West Seattle. Upcoming this week they play on the Island Tuesday and have senior night Friday versus Chief Sealth.

3. Seattle Prep (12-2): Prep kept their momentum rolling with three wins over Lakeside, Nathan Hale, and Eastside Catholic. Shoutout goes to junior center Mitch Brewe, who broke the 1,000 point mark in Saturday’s home win over eastside.  He joins four other players to have done so, including the NBA’s Martell Webster and Spencer Hawes. And yes, he’s a junior.  Prep has a major showdown against O’Dea Tuesday. A win against O'Dea will put them in an absolute tie for first with O'Dea in the Mountain Division. The Panthers play West Seattle Thursday in a rescheduled game following a snow cancellation a few weeks ago.

4. Chief Sealth (10-3): Sealth went a perfect 3-0 last week against Bainbridge twice and Eastside. The Seahawks have risen to eighth in Mason Kelley’s state rankings.  This senior heavy team has been the surprise of the Metro this year, and they hope to shock the world Friday by avenging a close defeat against Rainier Beach. Senior night is Tuesday against West Seattle.

5. Franklin (9-4): The Quakers may have official slipped from the ranks of the Metro elite last week. They beat Nathan Hale twice (once by just seven), but were annihilated by O’Dea. The Quakers clearly miss Rio Adams, who enrolled at Garfield this week, and have not recovered from his absence. They play Cleveland and Ingraham this week, so at least they head to the playoffs with some confidence.

6. Eastside Catholic (4-10): Two spot jump for the Crusaders after a victory over West Seattle Tuesday and a reasonably close defeat to Sealth.  They were blown out by Prep Saturday, but they played all but six seconds of the game without Joey Schreiber, who appeared to concuss himself hitting the floor after throwing down a game opening alley-oop. Eastside plays Bainbridge Thursday and finishes off with Lakeside Friday in a huge rematch.

7. Lakeside (6-7): Just ten days ago, Lakeside was 6-3 and looking down the barrel of four potential monumental statement games.  Well, they lost all four.  Sealth, Beach, Prep, and O’Dea whisked away the Lions in succession.  None of the games were under ten points, and three were over twenty point defeats.  Now Lakeside has to rebound and win two road games this week against Blanchet and Eastside in order to finish the conference season with a winning record.

8. West Seattle (5-7): Bad, bad week for West. Lost badly to Eastside, launched a fourth quarter comeback from down 32 to Beach and lost by 13 there, and survived Cleveland, yes Cleveland, by the skin of their teeth. The Wildcats need some sort of late bounce back to boost confidence for Metro playoffs. They play Sealth, Prep, and Bainbridge this week.  Two wins would be ideal, but difficult.

9. Cleveland (3-9): It was almost an unthinkable perfect week for the Eagles, who took two from Ingraham and nearly pulled an upset over West Seattle.  The Eagles will try and keep the so-called momentum going against Franklin Tuesday and Hale Friday.  Both games are home tilts for the Eagles.

10. Bainbridge (3-9): Brutal week for the Spartans, dropping three to Sealth, Beach, and Sealth again.  They have lost 5 out of 6, but they are really well coached and maybe if they beat Eastside Thursday West Seattle Friday or God forbid challenge Beach Tuesday, they can sneak into the playoffs.

11. Nathan Hale (2-10): Lost three games to Franklin (twice) and Prep.  They played the second Franklin game to within 7 points though. A rough year for the Raiders could end with two wins if they manage to beat Cleveland and Ingraham this week.

12. Ingraham (1-11): Major props to the Rams who scored their first conference win of the year against Blanchet Friday.  And even though they dropped two straight to Cleveland last week, Malik Barnes has been a bright light in a dark cave for them this year with his scoring. They play Hale and Franklin this week to conclude the season.

13. Blanchet (3-11): With a loss to Ingraham, don't expect to be anywhere else in these rankings.  The Braves also got shellacked by O’Dea and Beach.  They thought the bad was over, but it’s not.  O’Dea rolls around again along with Lakeside. Blanchet is awful. Also, I have heard unconfirmed reports that freshman phenom Lawrence Hicks is transferring to Prep. All bad for Blanchet.

Five Bold Predictions:

Seattle Prep 64 O’Dea 63

Chief Sealth 68 Rainier Beach 66

Franklin 70 Cleveland 59

Eastside Catholic 57 Lakeside 52

West Seattle 59 Bainbridge 54