It has been a crazy seven days in the Baltimore high school basketball scene, with our top three teams all falling victim to upset losses.

Dunbar jumps back to the top spot this week, but there truly is no top team in the Baltimore area this season. The Poets actually dropped a decision on Tuesday night to Edmondson, but become No. 1 by default. Patterson lost to Poly on Tuesday as well, and additional frontrunner Mount St. Joseph’s lost a 59-58 four-overtime thriller to unranked McDonogh on Friday night.

Arundel remains unbeaten, and is the only team in the area that still has not picked up a loss. Lake Clifton is probably playing the best basketball in the area, winning big decisions this week over City and Poly.

As will be the case all season, these rankings reward results, taking into account opponent strength and margin of victory/loss. Teams will not be ranked highly because of the hype or publicity surrounding their teams, but rather the consistency and impressiveness of their play. Additionally, because of the nature of these rankings, readers will notice considerable movement in the rankings each week. Rankings are released every Monday.

See past rankings: Preseason||Week 1 || Week 2 || Week 3 || Week 4  || Week 5 || Week 6 || Week 7 || Week 8

BSR Top 15: Week 8

  1. Dunbar, 15-2 (Last Week: #2)
  2. Lake Clifton, 16-2 (LW: #7)
  3. Milford Mill, 15-2 (LW: #4)
  4. Patterson, 11-6 (LW: #1)
  5. Mount St. Joseph’s, 21-5 (LW: #3)
  6. John Carroll, 22-5 (LW: #5)
  7. Edmondson, 13-3 (LW: #10)
  8. Arundel, 17-0 (LW: #6)
  9. St. Frances, 16-7 (LW: #8)
  10. Poly, 10-6 (LW: #13)
  11. Forest Park, 13-2 (LW: #9)
  12. City, 13-5 (LW: #11)
  13. Marriotts Ridge, 16-2 (LW: Unranked)
  14. Glen Burnie, 15-2 (LW: #12)
  15. Annapolis, 14-5 (LW: Unranked)

This is Dunbar‘s third week at the No. 1 spot in the rankings. They did fall on Tuesday, but they’ve been the most consistent team in the area. The fact that Patterson and Mount St. Joe’s also lost this week helped a lot in giving the Poets the pole position.

Lake Clifton is vastly undersized against most teams in the Baltimore City League, but plays tenacious defense and does enough offensively to win against tough City opposition. The Lakers are now 16-2 and a win on Tuesday over Patterson would launch them to the top spot in next week’s rankings, regardless of what Dunbar does.

The bottom three spots of our rankings are occupied by metro area teams that could make some noise in the state playoffs. Annapolis and Glen Burnie are strong Anne Arundel County squads (Glen Burnie won the contest between the two earlier in the season), and Marriotts Ridge is rolling through Howard County, defeating a tough Atholton team last week, 69-66.

Key Games This Week

  • #4 Patterson vs. #2 Lake Clifton, Tuesday 2/7, 5:15 p.m.
  • McDonogh vs. #6 John Carroll, Tuesday 2/7, 7 p.m.
  • #1 Dunbar vs. #12 City, Friday 2/10, 5:15 p.m.
  • #7 Edmondson vs. #4 Patterson, Friday 2/10, 5:15 p.m.
  • #6 John Carroll vs. #5 Mount St. Joe’s, Friday 2/10, 7 p.m.
  • #6 John Carroll vs. De Smet Jesuit (MO), Sunday 2/12, 1 p.m.
————————
Edgar Walker is a staff writer for BSR, focusing on high school sports. Edgar also is a basketball recruiting analyst for MD High on the Rivals network, and is active on Twitter.