Just two games for each team remain in the regular season, three teams have already clinched their berths in the upcoming 2024 FCIAC Boys Basketball Tournament, and seven more teams will look to win games on Monday, and Wednesday in their quest to clinch one of the five remaining playoff berths.
The conference tournament commences Feb. 24 at noon with the opening game of four quarterfinal games at Fairfield Warde High School.
One thing for certain is that Ridgefield is the No. 1 seed. That issue was still in doubt going into Thursday night’s showdown between the top two teams in the FCIAC when second-place Trumbull visited first-place Ridgefield.
The host Tigers had a two-game lead over Trumbull, and they secured their No. 1 seed with a 74-66 victory.
Ridgefield improved to 13-0 in the FCIAC and 17-1 overall while Trumbull dropped to 10-3 and 15-3.
If Trumbull’s Eagles had won that game, they would’ve been just one game behind Ridgefield and would’ve had the first tiebreaker advantage with a victory in their showdown.
Stamford and Trumbull both have 10-3 conference records heading into Monday’s games and Stamford’s Black Knights (14-4 overall) have an advantage in a possible tiebreaker scenario in the race for second place via their pivotal 62-59 victory at Trumbull on Feb. 6.
The Staples Wreckers may not have officially clinched their playoff berth yet, but they are in very good position, alone in fourth place with a 9-4 FCIAC record.
The six teams battling it out for the final four conference tournament seeds were all within one game of each other in the FCIAC standings heading into Monday’s President’s Day slate of games.
Defending FCIAC champion Danbury, Fairfield Ludlowe, Fairfield Warde, and Wilton are all in a four-way tie for fifth place with their identical 8-5 FCIAC records.
St. Joseph and Norwalk both still have conference playoff aspirations with their 7-6 records and St. Joseph’s Cadets have a potential tiebreaker advantage with their 73-64 victory at Norwalk on Jan. 23.
Stamford, Danbury, Fairfield Ludlowe, and Wilton all have both of their games next week against either one of the three teams already qualified for the FCIAC tournament or the seven remaining contenders for it.
There are six games in the final week of the regular season which are showdowns involving any of those three qualified teams and seven contenders being matched up against another one.
In the three such games on Monday, Feb. 19 (with conference records in parenthesis), Stamford (10-3) plays at Norwalk (7-6), Staples (9-4) visits St. Joseph (7-6), and Fairfield Ludlowe (8-5) travels to Wilton (8-5).
The three games involving any of the 10 teams being matched up against another in Wednesday’s final games of the regular season include Fairfield Ludlowe at Trumbull (10-3), St. Joseph at Danbury (8-5), and Stamford at Wilton.
When late Wednesday evening comes along, there is a good possibility that league officials will have to go over a few tiebreaking scenarios to determine the last couple playoff qualifiers and final seedings.
Ridgefield will play in the finale of the Feb. 24 quarterfinals at Fairfield Warde High School at 7 p.m., because that is the scheduled time featuring the No. 1 seed versus the No. 8 seed.
The quarterfinal round begins at noon with the No. 3 seed playing the No. 6 seed. The No. 2 seed plays the No. 7 seed in the second game scheduled for 2 p.m., and that is followed by No. 4 vs. No. 5 at 5 p.m.
The Nick Zeoli Fieldhouse at Wilton High School is once again the venue for the semifinal doubleheader and championship game. The first game is scheduled for 6 o’clock and the second game is 7:45 for Tuesday semifinals on Feb. 27. The championship is Feb. 29 at 7 p.m.
Ridgefield will take a 14-game winning streak into the final week of the regular season. The Tigers last lost on Dec. 27 at St. Bernard, 65-56, and that dropped them to 3-1.
Ridgefield is ranked No. 3 and St. Bernard is now No. 7 in the current GameTimeCT Top 10 Boys Basketball Poll which was released Feb. 12.
East Catholic received 12 first-place votes from the 17 voters from the media to remain No. 1 and Notre Dame-West Haven is No. 2 and the recipient of the other five first-place votes. They are followed by Ridgefield, Notre Dame-Fairfield, Kolbe Cathedral, Northwest Catholic, St. Bernard, Windsor, Waterbury Career, and Xavier.