One poll of the Top 4 teams in the NEO

Michael Fitzpatrick

January 7, 2019 @ 03:07 PM

Having taken in nearly 11 games in the last week or so and seeing many of the area’s top teams I feel like I can confidently rank my Top 4. Teams covered In my exclusive ratings for prephoops.com play in Cuyahoga, Lorain, Lake, and Summit Counties. Here then is my top 4 1. Brush To be the best you have to beat the best and nobody out of this group has beaten Brush, which features three college-level talents and an athletic and effective supporting cast and is 9-0. John Hugley IV at 6-9 (2020) can take a game over with his size. Andre Harris (2019) is an athletic disrupter and DJ Dial is the consummate senior point guard who can do it all. 2. Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary The Irish are the defending state champions and have a slew of D-I level talent stocking its roster. They picked up a real nice win over Lorain in the Hopskip Play-By-Play Classic at Elyria Catholic High. Chris Painter (2019), a Malone-commit, has been causing major damage on the offensive end as of late and did against Lorain with 22 points. Lunden McDay had 21 and Seth Wilson added 17 for St. V. 3. Lorain The Titans were knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten by St. Vincent-St. Mary in front of a huge throng at the Coliseum on the campus of Elyria Catholic on Jan. 6. Devon Grant scored 34 points to lead the way for Titans who are 9-1 and were beaten badly on the defensive glass by St. V. 4. St. Edward The Eagles are really starting to gel as their highly-touted junior class is beginning to show what all the hype was about. Devontae Blanton, a 6-6 guard/forward, had a huge game in the Eagles win over Kennedy Catholic of Hermitage Pa., and its big-time prospect Oscar Tshiebwe. Also impressive for St. Edward was senior guard Demetrius Terry who finished with 19. He’s become an electric scorer for the Eagles and is guaranteed at 5-foot-9.