It is a traditional rite of winter every year during the boys’ high school basketball season.
When one flips the calendar page from January to February, that generally signals the point when the race for the eight berths for the FCIAC Boys Basketball Tournament begins in earnest.
The better teams have spent the first half of the conference season winning most of their games to position themselves to make their run for the top seed or one of the other higher seeds while the group of teams in the next tier are in a scramble to snatch one of the lower seeds to qualify for the tournament.
Ridgefield, St. Joseph, Fairfield Warde and Trinity Catholic all won their Monday night games on Feb. 3 to remain in the top four spots in the FCIAC standings.
Ridgefield and St. Joseph each improved to 9-1 to remain tied for first place.
Ridgefield’s defending conference champion Tigers rolled to a 77-50 victory at Norwalk for their fourth consecutive victory. The Tigers are looking to win their third FCIAC championship in the last four years as they dethroned 2017-18 champion Danbury with their 52-49 victory in last year’s final.
St. Joseph’s Cadets increased their winning streak to eight with their hard-fought 73-70 home victory over New Canaan.
Fairfield Warde’s big 60-36 home victory over crosstown rival Fairfield Ludlowe was one of the biggest games on Monday night’s schedule regarding the playoff race. And there are many more pivotal upcoming conference games in the next week and a half.
Fairfield Warde improved to 8-1 in the FCIAC and remained in third place. Trinity Catholic remained in fourth place after improving to 7-2 with Monday’s 71-51 home victory over Trumbull.
Fairfield Warde’s Mustangs have a pair of big conference games at home within four days of each other as they host Trinity Catholic at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 6.
Trinity Catholic’s Crusaders have already posted convincing home victories over the conference’s two first-place teams – a 66-47 victory over St. Joseph on Jan. 7 and then a 68-39 triumph over Ridgefield on Jan. 21.
Fairfield Ludlowe dropped to 6-3 with its Monday loss across town and is tied for fifth place with Staples, which was idle Monday.
Stamford’s Black Knights improved to 6-4 Monday with their 77-68 victory at Bridgeport Central to remain in seventh place and they’re involved in another of Thursday’s pivotal FCIAC showdowns when they visit Staples for a 7 o’clock tipoff.
Wilton utilized a big 80-63 home victory over Brien McMahon on Monday night to improve to 5-4 and pull up into a tie with Trumbull for eighth place.
A couple other teams still hoping to grab one of the final FCIAC tournament berths include New Canaan (5-5) and Brien McMahon (4-5) and they play each other in yet another key Thursday game at New Canaan at 7 p.m.
St. Joseph and Trumbull have their annual crosstown rivalry game Friday night (Feb. 7) at 7:45 p.m. at Fairfield University.
Six more important conference games scheduled next week among teams in the conference playoff race include St. Joseph at Fairfield Ludlowe, Staples at Ridgefield and Fairfield Warde at Trumbull on Feb. 10, Stamford at Fairfield Warde and Trumbull at Wilton on Feb. 13, and a Friday night showdown of the current top two teams on Feb. 14 when Ridgefield travels to St. Joseph.
Most of the FCIAC playoff contenders have played 10 conference games and have six conference games remaining as there are 17 FCIAC teams. A few conference playoff contenders have seven conference games remaining.
The 2019-20 FCIAC Boys Basketball Tournament begins Feb. 29, a Saturday, with all four quarterfinal games played at Fairfield Warde High School. The March 3 semifinal round and March 5 championship will be played at Wilton High School.
There are no FCIAC teams in the latest GameTimeCT Top 10 Boys Basketball Poll which was released Feb. 3.
Windsor and East Catholic exchanged positions from the previous week’s top two rankings because they engaged in a great No. 1-versus-No. 2 showdown against each other on Jan. 28 and host Windsor won a 48-45 thriller to leapfrog over previously-unbeaten East Catholic in a rematch of last year’s CIAC Division I state championship game which East Catholic won, 79-74. Windsor’s Warriors became the unanimous No. 1 as they received all 19 first-place votes.
Windsor has a 10-3 record as the Warriors’ three losses occurred in December against some great competition in Florida so they are undefeated in state play. East Catholic dropped to 12-1.
Undefeated teams Sacred Heart (12-0), Notre Dame-West Haven (13-0) and Norwich Free Academy (13-0) are ranked third through fifth, respectively.
The final five teams in the Top 10, in order, are Immaculate (12-1), Hillhouse (11-2), Prince Tech (12-0), Northwest Catholic (11-1) and Naugatuck (13-0).
The 19 voting media members all select their own order of the top 15 teams in the state. A total of 28 teams received voting points and the FCIAC had five teams among the 18 in the “Others receiving votes” category.
Fairfield Ludlowe received 96 points which was the 13th most points among all 28 teams and the highest finish for a conference school as voting took place before Monday’s loss at Warde. Ridgefield received the 15th most points, Trinity Catholic the 21stt most, St. Joseph the 23rd most and Fairfield Warde the 26th most points.