The FCIAC now has two teams ranked in the Top 10 in both the girls and boys high school basketball state polls recently released by GameTimeCT.
The undefeated St. Joseph Cadets moved up one spot to No. 3 and Ridgefield vaulted up two spots to No. 8 as the two FCIAC teams in the GameTimeCT Top 10 Girls Basketball Poll which was released Jan. 16.
Ridgefield is ranked No. 5 and Stamford popped up and into the Top 10 at No. 10 as the two conference teams in the GameTimeCT Top 10 Boys Basketball Poll released one day earlier on Jan. 15.
The East Catholic boys’ team and Sacred Heart Academy girls’ team both maintained their No. 1 rankings in their respective polls.
Sacred Heart Academy won twice last week to improve to 8-0 and was the unanimous choice for No. 1 as the recipient of all 17 first-place votes in girls’ state poll. The first of those victories occurred in a No. 1-versus-No. 2 showdown when SHA had an impressive 70-50 victory over Hamden, which was ranked second at that time and has fell four spots down to No. 6 in the current poll.
Holy Cross won three times last week to improve to 10-0 and is now No. 2.
St. Joseph’s third-ranked Cadets had impressive victories last week over a pair of solid FCIAC teams – 50-31 over Fairfield Warde and 59-37 over Greenwich – to improve to 10-0 overall and snatch the No. 3 ranking.
Newington (8-2) is ranked No. 4 and followed in the Top 10 by Simsbury (11-0), Hamden (7-3), East Hampton (9-0), eighth-ranked Ridgefield (9-1), E.O. Smith (8-3), and Conard (10-1).
Stamford (7-3) and Warde (5-3) were the FCIAC teams in the “Others receiving votes” category as 24 teams statewide got votes from the voting media members who selected their own top 15 teams in the state, in order. Stamford received the 21st most polling points and one voter ranked Warde 15th, so the Mustangs tied for the 23rd most polling points with the seven points they received.
One of the regular season’s biggest showdowns among girls’ basketball teams in the FCIAC had St. Joseph scheduled to host Ridgefield at 7 o’clock on Wednesday (Jan. 17).
Both had 5-0 records as the two unbeaten FCIAC teams in conference games. Stamford and New Canaan were 4-1 in the FCIAC, while Greenwich, Fairfield Ludlowe, Fairfield Warde, and Wilton all had 3-2 conference records.
The girls’ basketball teams get a little bit of an earlier start to their seasons so they are just past the halfway point of their regular seasons while the boys’ teams will reach their midway point very soon or they may have just gotten there.
Defending state champion East Catholic (9-1) takes on some very tough out-of-state boys’ teams when possible. The Eagles had their 28-game winning streak snapped by Christ the King (Queens, N.Y.), 81-52, in their last game but they still got 12 of the 17 first-place votes to remain No. 1 in the GameTimeCT Top 10 Boys Basketball Poll.
Undefeated Notre Dame-West Haven (10-0) won twice last week by an average 47.5 points per game (an 83-46 victory over Hamden and a 94-36 victory over Fairfield Prep) to remain No. 2.
ND-West Haven’s Green Knights got four first-place votes and had just 10 less polling points than East Catholic, which won the 2023 Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Boys Basketball Division I Tournament with a 49-47 victory over Northwest Catholic.
That was Northwest Catholic’s last loss as the 9-0 Lions are ranked No. 3 in the current poll.
Fourth-ranked Kolbe Cathedral (8-0) got the other first-place vote and is followed in the boys’ Top 10 by No. 5 Ridgefield (7-1), St. Bernard (8-2), Windsor (9-2), No. 8 Notre Dame-Fairfield (7-1), Waterbury Career Academy (8-2), and Stamford’s 10th-ranked Black Knights, who have improved to 7-1 with six consecutive wins since their 68-53 home loss to Kolbe Cathedral on Dec. 19.
There are four FCIAC boys’ teams among the 15 in the “Others receiving votes” category. Trumbull (7-1) received the 13th most polling points, Fairfield Warde (6-1) got the 14th most, Staples (5-2) the 16th most, and Danbury (5-3) the 25th most.
It is still relatively early in the conference season for the boys’ teams as Ridgefield, Stamford, Fairfield Warde, and Norwalk are the four teams still undefeated in the conference season with identical 3-0 records in the games played through last Saturday, Jan. 13.
The four teams in a four-way tie for fifth place with 2-1 records are Trumbull, Danbury, Staples, and Fairfield Ludlowe.
Norwalk was scheduled to play at Ridgefield, and Staples was set to travel down to Stamford in a couple big Friday night showdowns on Jan. 19 at 7 p.m.