By Mitch Stephens
MaxPreps.com
Take a week off during the middle of the season and drop a spot.
That’s the rule here anyway and now for the fourth time in five weeks, we have a new No. 1 girls team in the MaxPreps Xcellent 25.
Previous No. 1 Murry Bergtraum (New York, N.Y.) had the week off and after a pair of lopsided victories, Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) moves into the top spot. The Southern California school now has the top ranked teams in both the boys and girls Xcellent 25.
For the second straight week there was only one loss among the 25 and that was No. 5 Heritage Christian (Indianapolis), who dropped a 60-58 home game to battle-tested and previous No. 18 Bolingbrook (Ill.).
About the Rankings: MaxPreps already provides the most comprehensive high school sports ratings with the MaxPreps National Rankings presented by the National Guard, a computer model developed by Ned Freeman. Now, it’s time to get the human element involved.
Each Monday, Mitch Stephens will run down the top 25 girls basketball teams in the country – weighing record, quality wins and losses and other factors to determine the best of the best
MaxPreps Xcellent 25
1. Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) 23-0 (2-0) – After two more blowouts, has doubled opponents score on the year, 1,658-827. The Monarchs have a big showdown Friday against No. 15 Cajon at the Nike Extravaganza. We’ll be on hand and send a live report.
2. Murry Bergtraum (New York, N.Y.) 19-0 (0-0) – Idle last week, the Blazers will enter postseason toughened up playing New York City’s No. 5 team (Kennedy) and No. 8 Manhattan Center. Bergtraum has won 72 straight.
3. Washington (South Bend, Ind.) 21-0 (1-0) – Finished regular season with impressive 75-39 win over Benton Harbor as Notre Dame-bound Skylar Diggins continued her national POY run with 31 points. Her season averages: 29.2 points, 6.2 assists, 6.4 rebounds, 5.8 steals.
4. Ben Davis (Indianapolis, Ind.) 21-0 (1-0) – Big win over Carmel (72-57), same team that Davis was eliminated by last year as Penn State-bound Alex Bentley had 23 and Jordan Huber 15. Carmel (14-4) is state’s No. 7 team.
5. Cardinal O’Hara (Springfield, Pa.) 18-1 (2-0) – Danielle Callahan and Natasha Cloud combined for just six points but led O’Hara to tough 47-37 win over very good Villa Marie (23-3).
6. Whitney Young (Chicago, Ill.) 24-1 (2-0) – Won by a combined 151-50 count in two easy victories.
7. Mount Notre Dame (Cincinnati, Ohio) 14-1 (0-0) – With five regular season games still left, the three-time defending state champion seeded No. 1 into the section playoffs.
8. Brea Olinda (Brea, Calif.) 19-2 (1-0) – Won 15th straight with 60-24 win over Canyon as Wildcats opened with 22-2 run and had five players score either 8 or 9 points.
9. Kentwood (Covington, Wash.) 17-0 (3-0) – Lindsay Moore had 23 points, Courtney Johnson 14 and Kylie Huerta 11 in 68-42 win over Auburn on night after giving up season-low 21 in win over Kentridge.
10. St. Michael Academy (New York, N.Y.) 17-2 (0-0) – Ends regular season at home tonight against St. Vincent Ferrer. Only defeats were back-to-back to East Mecklenburg and West Charlotte.
11. Riverdale Baptist (Upper Marlboro, Md.) 16-2 (1-0) – Tianna Hawkins, a 6-3 senior, made 10 of 15 shots and all eight free throws to score season-high 31 points and added 13 rebounds in 81-48 win over Harrisburg.
12. Poly (Long Beach, Calif.) 19-2 (2-0) – Two more lopsided wins for Poly, the three-time defending state Division I champion, including 55-37 over Wilson behind 12 points each from UCLA-bound Monique Oliver and Ariya Crook-Williams.
13. Sacred Heart Cathedral (San Francisco) 17-1 (2-0) – After pedestrian wins over Notre Dame (50-21) and Presentation (61-35), the Irish have very tough week against St. Ignatius and Valley Christian, teams with combined 29-6 marks.
14. Bolingbrook (Ill.) 15-4 (3-0) – In the national game of the week, the fantastic youthful duo of sophomore point guard Ariel Messengale (25 points) and freshman forward Morgan Tuck (10) led the battle-tested Raiders to 60-56 win at then No. 5 Heritage Christian.
15. Cajon (San Bernardino, Calif.) 21-1 (3-0) – After first loss of the season – tough 58-47 decision to No. 9 Brea Olinda – the Cowboys average 89 points per game in three wins with 14 individual double-digit game scorers.
16. Horizon (Thornton, Colo.) 18-0 (2-0) – After winning by average margin of 57 the previous week, Horizon gets two competitive games including 68-54 over Rocky Mountain as Meagan Malcolm-Peck, a 6-2 senior, had 24 points and 12 rebounds.
17. St. Mary’s (Stockton, Calif.) 18-3 (2-0) – Winners of 10 straight, high-scoring Rams (77 points per game) get tough McNair team on Tuesday. Two of the nation’s top juniors Chelsea Gray and Afure Jemerigbe had 35 and 24 points respectively in 83-62 win over Modesto Christian. Gray had five 3-pointers.
18. Westbury Christian (Houston) 37-1 (3-0) – The national leader in victories scored three more decisive wins by combined 111 and now reach the TAPPS 4A Tourney semifinals. Waltia Rolle, one of the state’s many fantastic post players, leads the team scoring at 17.8 points per game while shooting 61 percent from the field.
19. Heritage Christian (Indianapolis, Ind.) 17-1 (0-1) – Despite combined 43 points from Kelly Faris and Claire Freeman, Eagles had their 25-game win streak snapped in national game of the week.
20. Dulles (Sugar Land, Texas) 29-2 (2-0) – Jasmin Henderson backs up nation’s No. 2 senior Kelsey Bone with 14.1 scoring averaging while shooting 77 percent from the line.
21. Nimitz (Houston, Texas) 28-1 (2-0) – Has allowed just 26.5 points per game over the last five contests. Plays Kingswood on Tuesday night.
22. University (Newark, N.J.) 11-3 (2-0) – Like Nimitz, University has turned up heat defensively, allowing just 21 points per game over the last four.
23. Detroit Country Day (Mich.) 14-0 (3-0) – Won by 17, 20 and 19 points last week to remain undefeated. Plays at West Bloomfield on Tuesday.
24. Fargo South (Fargo, N.D.) 13-0 (2-0): Has scored between 77 and 85 in five straight games and averages 79 points per game.
25. College Park (The Woodlands, Texas) 28-2 – Balance the key for the Cavaliers as Nicole Morgan (14.1 ppg), Monique Smalls (12.3) and Allie Massimer (12.3) score in double digits.
On the Bubble (alphabetical): Archbishop Carroll (Radnor, Pa) 17-1; Cedar Hill (Texas) 22-4; Clovis West (Fresno, Calif.) 15-4: Detroit Community (Detroit, Mich.) 11-0; Fayetteville (Ark) 19-0; Foothill (Santa Ana, Calif.) 20-1; Germantown Academy (Pa.) 22-0; Lakota West (West Chester, Ohio)13-2; Lewis & Clark (Spokane, Wash.) 16-0; Oak Ridge (Tenn.) 21-2; St. John-Vianney (Holmdel, N.J.) 17-1
Past weeks: Jan. 5, Jan. 12, Jan. 20, Jan. 26
Click Here for MaxPreps National Rankings presented by the National Guard
