Which is the best TEAM in the WestPAC?

[pebbleriver09]

Took a ride to see Shade play rockwood last night. In the paper this am, they are calling it a sloppy game...it all started with the refs. One bad call after another (for both teams) and then they'd have 'pow wows' on the floor to figure out how they were going to get out of the bad call. No wonder the players were sloppy...the refing had to drive them nuts. (I was pulling for rockwood, btw)

This just in. Shade over Rockwood.

[Fdale8622]

portage and ferndale game......Tie game going into the 4th Portage outscored Ferndale 26-10 in the last frame

[Prince Sidewinder]

I was also kind of surprised that Conemaugh Valley beat North Star. Valley has a solid lineup with some decent size. Kushner and Lupek have been a tough combo thus far. Kushner is averaging a little over 16 and Lupek is 22 and some change per game. North Star is arguably the favorite to take the section, this loss stung the Cougars but CV must play at North Star. Zellem and Petrilla are probably the toughest one two punch in the North.

Township rocked Windber they were up 21 after three quarters. Could be a long season for the Ramblers. Township has been pretty stingy on defense but appear to struggle offensively. I think they will finish above .500. Windber does not seem to have a scorer on the team.

Portage with a nice win at home vs Ferndale. Portage has been getting some balanced scoring and has played some teams very tough. Cronauer (24) Scoran (17) are putting up some scoring. Ferndale looks as if Gaunt is the big threat for them. He does not seem to have someone to compliment him on the floor, Mattis and Stumpo ???

Blacklick Valley rolled past Berlin 76-62. According to the paper they got a big game from Fyock (17 pts), Paul (13), Worthington (13) and Holby (24). Vanfossen is one of Blacklicks top scorers and was held to 6. This type of balance could make Blacklick a threat in the North Section.

[jackets09]

I beleive that Blacklick Valley is a strong competitor. They ruled over Berlin and had an amazing game over Township. Holby is playing great, along with Fyock, Worthington, Paul, and Van Fossen.

[DrJerkyllMrHide]

jackets09...See that you are new to the the bleachercoaches message board. Welcome.
One thing you gotta know though is that those who post on this board are no dummies....A user name of jackets09 coming on to extol the virtuals of Blacklick players just isn't going to fool anyone.

I beleive that Blacklick Valley is a strong competitor. They ruled over Berlin and had an amazing game over Township. Holby is playing great, along with Fyock, Worthington, Paul, and Van Fossen.

[Prince Sidewinder]

Jackets Welcome to the Show

Good observation Doctor. Jacket is right Blacklick seems to be playing good basketball. I see they have Portage at home on Tuesday, at Windber on Thursday and at home against Conemaugh Valley on Friday. Rockwood seemed to give Shade a little struggle last week (44-31).

By the way, I will have your picks schedule ready soon. I believe you are standing at 12-2 thus far.

[DrJerkyllMrHide]

Much to my dismay, I won't be able to make ANY high school games this week, so I'll need to get my game info off here...Guys, keep me informed. I see NS has CT and Ferndale this week. I'll have to 'ponder' on the CT/NS game. That one might bring me down. I have to keep an open mind on that one. My reputation depends upon it.

[ctindian00]

Much to my dismay, I won't be able to make ANY high school games this week, so I'll need to get my game info off here...Guys, keep me informed. I see NS has CT and Ferndale this week. I'll have to 'ponder' on the CT/NS game. That one might bring me down. I have to keep an open mind on that one. My reputation depends upon it.

Haha, I'm not sure who all plays this week but I know CT takes on North Star tonight down in Cougar Country and I believe that Windber is travelling over to Ferndale. As far as me chipping in my opinion on the picks...I'd be happy to throw in my 2 cents as well. And you were right to say that i would have picked CT over Windber, but not for the reason's you may have though. You seemed to say it had something to do with me being overly biased towards CT ( a claim that i wont deny) but I would have picked CT for the same reason I pick Ferndale to beat Windber.

I've seen Windber play and I've seen CT and Ferndale play. I know CT is the best of those three and I know windber doesnt have that X factor to give them the edge in any game. I picked CT simply becuase they are a better team and if they were equal...i still would pick them becuase they were at home.

Personally, I think CT is one of, if not THE, best team in the WestPAC north. You can scream and yell all you want about that outlandish statement, but: good teams lose some games too. As the season progresses, CT will get better and better under a new head coach as they learn which formula it takes to win. They lost to Blacklick at home, and that was their only North loss so far. It was a poorly played game and had they hit their inside shots or even 1 more free-throw, the game was theirs.

So here are my picks from what I understand the schedule is today:

North:
Conemaugh Township at North Star
Windber at Ferndale (Ferndale is strong at home with their only home loss coming to Conemaugh Township)
Portage at Blacklick Valley (Blacklick is a team to be reckoned with (3 wins in a row now) and I don't see Portage coming out of there alive)

South:
Meyersdale at Shade (Shade is clearly the class of the WestPAC and for anyone to beat them would surely be an upset)
Turkeyfoot at Salisbury (This is a tough one to call but I'll go with Salisbury as they are at home)
Shanksville at Berlin (Berlin is struggling a little bit, but Shanksville's lost 4 of 6 now, I'll go with the hotter hand at home)

Inter-divison:
Rockwood at Conemaugh Valley

Top Games:

Rockwood at Conemaugh Valley: This is a tough one to call, a really tough one. Rockwood is not a team to mess around with as they have good shooters and can get really hot, really fast. Conemaugh Valley though, just came off of two huge wins over Penn Cambria and North Star. I know rockwood has more wins than CV, but dont let records fool you: In the two of the three early season losses for CV (the other one was to Shade) CV came up short by just 2 and 8 points, respectively, and have won their last 5 games including a rout of Berline, a tight win over NS and a win on the road at Blairsville. I look for Conemaugh Valley to challenge Rockwood to defense their high flying offense. C. Valley 61 Rockwood 49

Conemaugh Township at North Star: I 'm anticipating hot heads and raging tempers down in North Star, especially if the refs are as bad as they've been all season. I think we may even see a technical foul in this one. And don't let my pick fool you: North is sure to be pissed after having their perfect WestPAC record tarnished with a loss at Conemaugh Valley. However, desperation oftens trumps revenge in the wide world of sports (just ask the eagles and giants). The Conemaugh Township Indians' slow WestPAC start has put them in a rough position in the standings. If they want to get their second shot at Shade in the WestPAC championship game, they have to all but win out and beat North Star twice. That said, the Indians will be ready from the tip-off and will put the ball in North Star's court as far as who has to step up to get the win. I expect this to be the game that turns around CT's season as they come together as a team to pull out a gritty and emotional win. CT 46 NS 41

[DrJerkyllMrHide]

According to CTindian, these are the teams playing today...and here's my picks:
North
Ferndale If the exchange on B/C is any indication, this game's gonna be nasty....Not the matchup---the fans.
Blacklick
Now for CT and North Star.....I've pondered over this one for several days and since I couldn't make the decision on my own, I've flipped the last state quarter released (Hawaii--I always wanted to go there), but I digress. Heads it'll be CT and Tails for North Star...

When in doubt, flip....
Dr J said "HEADS" and Mr H. called "TAILS".
"TAILS" it is--Gotta go with North Star.........This is going to be a close one. I won't predict a score, but I think the points will be closer than those predicted by ctindian.

Now in the South. I think I'll just go with the 3-S's
Shade
Salisbury
Shanksville

Gotta go break up the fight between Jerkyll and Hide...They don't play nice together..anyway....Keep me informed.

[ctindian00]

I'm 0 for 1 so far. I guess the coin doesn't lie Mr. Hyde, or Mr. Jekyll...whichever you are.

North Star and Township played a physical game to the last second and Nate Pahel's 3 pointer to tie the game rimmed out. The refs were the same as those who reffed the poorly called Blacklick game...no comment there. In the exact opposite of what I said earlier in my prediction, CT inexplicably played the worst game of their season. They couldn't shoot inside, and they couldn't shoot outside and Duray had a terrible night with single digit rebounds and (i think) single digit scoring. It wasn't that North Star shut him down, it was that he just played terribly.

I guess when Zellem and Petrilla play together, it makes Petrilla look good. Either that, or he just had a bad night because he was the worst player on the floor tonight. He missed about 50 layups, kept losing the ball, couldn't dribble and couldn't control his mouth. If the game had played on any other court, on any other night, Petrilla would have been ejected from the game. Surprisingly, tonight, the refs seemed to overlook the whole respect and violence and sportsmanship thing and only called him for 1 foul (not a technical).

But the refs, as bad as they were, should not shoulder the blame for this game. Township couldn't pass, couldn't shoot, and thus couldn't put up the points they needed. It was a close on at the half with NS up by 6. CT rallied to start the 3rd and wound up with a 6 point lead toward the end of the 3rd quarter. Then, for reasons that were unfathomable to every CT faithful in the crowd, Coach Lesko benched three of the five players who helped build that lead for the first 6 minutes of the 4th quarter. Then, realizing his mistake, he put that lineup back in and CT brought the game back from 9 points to 2 with a tight press that North Star couldnt solve.

With the score at 47-45 and 5.4 seconds on the clock, CT had to foul Petrilla on the inbound pass. He missed the first of the 2 shot foul and then nailed the second and putting the score at 48-45 with 4.7 on the clock. CT pushed the ball up the court and set up a screen to give the ball to Nate Pahel for the 3 pointer. The ball rimmed out and the final score was official. The game was as close as expected and I think CT will rebound and let this be a lesson. If they dont learn from this loss, they wont learn at all.

CT has what should be a "gimme" game against Meyersdale on thursday. Next week will essentially decide the fate of their season: @CV, Portage, and @BV. If CT can come out 3-0 on the week, they'll be headed in the right direction and should look to finish the season strong. If they go 2-1, i'll expect D5 playoffs, but nothing more. If they lose the two away games, it's lights out for the Indians on what once looked like a promising season