Published on: Wednesday, February 17, 2010

By Justin Karp

With only a few days remaining until the seeding is established for the 2010 postseason basketball tournament, high school basketball teams in both Prince George’s County divisions will see some extra action this week, county athletic officials said.

County Supervisor of Interscholastic Athletics O’Shay Watson said that the two mammoth snowstorms that socked the Washington Metro area last week caused county teams to lose three possible game dates while schools remained closed.

“Each team missed at least two games,” Watson said. “We’ll be able to make up one of those to make sure everyone qualifies for the playoffs.

“Everyone might not be able to finish their entire schedule, but at least they’ll qualify.”

Thanks to the record-setting winter weather, county teams did not play games on Feb. 5, 9 or 11. Campuses were closed throughout the county all week.

Watson said that teams will play their scheduled games on Thursday and then play make up games on Friday in an attempt to catch up on the schedule.

However, he said that not every game will be replayed but each team will play at least 15 league games, a requirement to qualify for the playoffs.

“It’s very critical to get these games in this week so that we can have a clear distinction of the top four seeds in each division,” Watson said.

Seeding for the boy’s tournament, which will be held at the Comcast Center in College Park, and girl’s tournament at UMBC will be determined and announced on Sunday.

Several teams are still jockeying to get into the top four of each division to earn an automatic entry into the playoffs.

In the county 4A division, Bowie is currently holding court at the top of the standings with a record of 11-3 while Eleanor Roosevelt in Greenbelt and Oxon Hill are tied for second at 11-2.

High Point of Beltsville and Henry Wise of Upper Marlboro are tied for 4th with 10-3 records. The two will tip off in a game that will be potentially pivotal to seeding on Friday.

Division 3A has even more of a logjam at the top of the standings as Gwynn Park, Douglass and Largo all carried 10-3 records into the final week of the season. The fourth and fifth spots are currently held by Surrattsville at 9-4 and Friendly at 8-5, respectively.

Those two do not play again this season but Surrattsville plays each of the top three teams in the division this week.

Pivotal games that will help determine the final division standings include a match-up between Gwynn Park and Douglass on Thursday. Largo will not play either of them again in the regular season but are coming off back-to-back losses to the two teams in front of them two weeks ago.

The girls divisions are a little more clear-cut with Wise, Bowie, Northwestern and C.H. Flowers comfortably holding down the top four spots in 4A while Largo, Gwynn Park, Crossland and Surrattsville occupy the top of the 3A standings.