The Baltimore area is well known for its rich high school athletic traditions and perhaps the premiere one of them all - The Baltimore Catholic League Basketball Tournament - gets rolling with full force on Monday at Reitz Arena, on the campus of Loyola College in Maryland.
Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for students and children 13 and under are free per session. After your school competes, stay all day and enjoy the rest of the games.
Following a competitive regular season and the surprising results from last week's MIAA A Conference playoffs, the 37th annual edition of the BCL Tournament appears wide open.
Defending champion Towson Catholic (21-11), which began the year at 2-7, proved it has found its way back to championship form, with a sensational three-game run to the MIAA title last week. In succession, the Owls thumped a talented Cardinal Gibbons team, battled back from a double-digit deficit to stun second-seedned St. Frances in overtime and then went toe-to-toe with nationally ranked Mount St. Joseph, before landing a knock-out punch in the championship game.
The Owls were largely written off following the graduation, last spring, of Donte Greene and Malcolm Delaney, but the senior trio of Brandon Greene, Larry Bastfield and Vinny Breckenridge saw the team through the tough times of the early season. Now, they have another MIAA championship banner and have climbed all the way to #3 in the latest Digital Top 20 Boys Basketball rankings.
TC, which will play Calvert Hall (15-16) at 7:00 pm on Monday, should be dangerous again this weekend. Not only are the third-seeded Owls on a roll, but they will come in looking to prove something once again, after being passed over for a spot in the Alhambra Catholic Invitational Tournament.
The BCL will have two representatives at Alhambra, which will be played at Frostburg State University in mid-March, as regular season champion St. Joe and second-place finisher St. Frances received bids. Both squads defeated Towson Catholic twice during the regular season.
The Gaels, currently ranked second locally by DigitalSports, have had an incredible year, despite last week's loss to Towson Catholic. Coach Pat Clatchey has had his team near the top of a number of national polls and they come into this tournament with a record of 28-3. In addition to the loss to Towson Catholic, the Gaels dropped an early season meeting with St. Frances and later lost a very close game with national power Oak Hill Academy.
Led by 6'-10 senior center Henry Sims, sophomore Erick Atkins, as well as senior stalwarts Justin McCoy and Chris Olsen, St. Joe will play eighth-seeded Archbsihop Spalding (6-23) in Monday's second game, at 5:15 pm.
St. Frances (24-9), led by four-year starter and Maryland bound Sean Mosley, will help kick off the event with St. Maria Goretti (12-18), the seventh seed, at 3:30 pm.
This contest will mark the final BCL appearance for one of two venerable coaches. St. Frances' William Wells and Goretti's Cokey Robertson have both announced their retirements, effective at the end of this season.
Monday's other first round game will match Cardinal Gibbons (15-13) against Loyola (17-9) at 8:45 pm. Potentially, this could be the best game of the opening round. Both squads own wins over the top seeds this year and have proven to be extremely competitive on most nights.
The tournament will continue on Tuesday, with a semifinal double-header and the championship game is slated for 7:00 pm Wednesday. The championship game will be taped for delayed broadcast of Fox 45's digital channel. The broadcast will be aired twice - Saturday, March 8 at 6:00 pm and again on Sunday, March 9 at 6:00 pm.
Fox 45's Bruce Cunningham will do the play-by-play along side former Calvert Hall coach Mark Amatucci. In addition, the championship game will be available on live radio, on WVIE, with DigitalSports' own Matt Diehl and Joe DiBlasi on the call.
Official 2008 BCL Tournament Bracket
