The ins and outs of basketball post-season playoffs
February 21, 2024 at 11:50 p.m.
If a team is only as good as its record, no matter how you spin it, the basketball Rams weren't very good and nowhere good enough to make it into the Section 1 playoffs with the seeding brackets announced last Monday (2/12).
The first round began last Thursday (Feb. 15) with more than 20 teams in the running and the large school post-season games beginning on the home court of the teams with the better record.
While there's no denying that some of those records are on the losing side, they are still better than the Rams’ dismal winter season hoops record.
The numbers don't lie. Because the post-season playoff seedings are based on a mathematical system that rewards wins and matchups with successful programs. And no matter how those numbers are crunched, the Rams are on the outside looking in.
Season in microcosm
If you look back on the winter hoops season through a glass darkly, that became apparent during the Rams’ first home scrimmage against Saunders of Yonkers, usually a non-competitive team yet all too able to hang with the Rams in that scrimmage even though Port Chester's senior Dominican Republic transfer Guillermo (Memo) Zabala was by far the best player on the court.
Zabala makes All-Section
That scrimmage turned out to be the winter season in microcosm with Zabala making the All-Section 1 All-Star Team announced by the Lower Hudson Valley Basketball Coaches Association last Sunday (2/18). Zabala moved up after making the All-Conference Team last year but will not get a chance to compete in this year's post-season playoffs because of the Rams’ losing record, one in which you could count the number of wins on the fingers of one hand and still have fingers left over.
And yet Saunders (7-13), the team that looked so good in that pre-season scrimmage against the Rams, made the playoffs, seeded 15th despite losing almost as many games as they won. But then Yonkers (6-14, seeded 20th) was also heavy on the loss side. And so was Lincoln (5-15, seeded 16th with the Lincs beating the Rams twice at home and away despite Zabala scoring a school record 60 and 45 points respectively). Carmel (6-14, seeded 17th) also made the cut as did Brewster (5-15, seeded 19th), Spring Valley (4-16, seeded 18) and John Jay/Cross River (5-15, seeded 21). Three seven-win teams also got in, that number including John Jay/East Fishkill (JJEF, 7-12, seeded ninth), Roy C. Ketcham (7-13, seeded eighth) and Saunders) while Harrison (8/12) was seeded 13th.
Those teams are considered long shots to make it into the quarterfinals Friday (2/23) against the top-seeded teams listed in order: White Plains (19-1), Mamaroneck (18-2), New Rochelle (17-3), North Rockland (15-5), Mount Vernon (12-6) and Ossining (12-8).
All-Conference Trojans
The semi-finals are scheduled for Wednesday (2/28) at the Westchester County Center in White Plains at 4:30 p.m. with the finals set for Sunday (3/3) at 2 p.m.
The Rams’ cross-town rival Blind Brook (13-8, seeded fifth) was scheduled to go up against Westlake (15-5, seeded fourth) in the first round of the small school Class B playoffs Tuesday (2/20), Westlake having beaten the Trojans 47-36 earlier in the season. Both closely matched teams revolve around two Lohud All-Conference All-Stars going into the game—Trojans junior guard Noah Brookman and senior guard Eli Zimmerman and Westlake's senior guard Nick Castellano and sophomore guard Marcus Jackette.
Local leading ladies
The Lady Rams (8-12, seeded ninth) made it into the Class AAA playoffs but were one and done in an away game against Arlington (6-14, seeded eighth), losing by a score of 57-33 last Thursday (2/15) despite solid play from junior Elise Thomas, senior Samantha (Sam) Munoz and eighth-grade point guard McKayla McLoughlin who led the Port Chester scorers with 13 points. And in Class B, Blind Brook's Lady Trojans were scheduled to go up against Westlake Tuesday (2/20) in a battle between the fifth and fourth seeds respectively with sophomores Kendall Konigsberg and Oriah Rosenfeld and senior captain Kyra Mak the Blind Brook players who have been among the team leaders all season long.
The top ranked large school girls’ teams include Ketcham (18-2), White Plains (15-5), JJEF (13-7), Ossining (12-8), North Rockland (11-9) and New Rochelle (9-11) while their small school Class B counterparts include Yonkers Montessori Academy (16-4), Putnam Valley (13-7) and Croton (13-7).
That's a condensed look at the post-season basketball playoffs picture. But you have to be in it to win it, the Rams weren't, the Lady Rams were, but didn't last long. So as far as the hoops playoffs go for Port Chester, better luck next year. And best wishes for continued hoops success for Blind Brook.
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