CUMBERLAND — No. 1 Fort Hill and No. 2 Allegany meet for the second time tonight with a conference championship and home court advantage on the line.
The Sentinels (16-2) fell to Allegany (15-4), 73-60, on Jan. 13. Since then, Fort Hill has passed each test, rattling off eight straight wins heading into tonight’s 7 p.m. matchup.
“The kids are excited to play,” Fort Hill head coach Thad Burner said. “It’s gonna be a good atmosphere I’m sure. You’ll see a lot of energy from both sides.
“People have been excited about this game for a while. The anticipation will be just as great as it was at Allegany.”
Allegany, meanwhile, has been in somewhat of a rut, dropping three of its past five contests following an explosive 13-1 start to the 2022-23 campaign.
Their latest game, a 74-25 drubbing of Clear Spring on Monday, may give the Campers some much-needed momentum entering their biggest game of the season.
“We’re going to come out and play as hard as we can,” Allegany head coach Tedd Eirich said. “At some point this year, everybody thought they were the team to beat. When we beat them, I think it shocked a lot of people.
“They’re a great team, they have lots of talent and we’re just going to have to come out and play hard again. If not, it could get ugly. They could blow us off the court if we don’t.”
Burner believes both teams will have similar keys to the game.
“Not turn the ball over,” he said. “We have to play a little bit better defense. We have to win the rebound battle. Whoever wins the largest portion of those three is going to be the winner.”
Fort Hill struggled in some of those areas in a 75-67 win over Mountain Ridge on Tuesday, needing to finish the game with a frantic run to erase an eight-point fourth-quarter deficit.
Still, Fort Hill found a way to win. The Sentinels will likely have to problem solve in a similar capacity to down Allegany.
“We were able to win a basketball game,” Burner said. “They faced a little bit of adversity. It had been a while since we had dealt with that. … That type of energy can catapult you at this time in the season.”
Players to watch
When talking about Fort Hill, the discussion has to start with Mikey Allen — the area’s leading scorer at 22.6 points per game. He’s scored at least 20 points in 13 of 18 bouts.
The South End sharpshooter also tops the area with 60 3-pointers.
Owen Seifarth averages 14.8 points per game down low, and Anthony Burns adds 9.6 a night and has 32 3-pointers this year. Deshaun Brown (7.1 scoring average) and Steven Spencer (6.4) are also consistent scorers for the Sentinels.
Allegany boasts three players that average double figures in All-Area performers Caiden Chorpenning (16.2) and Chazz Imes (14.7) in addition to junior Isaiah Fields (12.8).
Fields was the best player on the court in the teams’ prior meeting, as the slashing guard poured in a season-high 31 points, making nine buckets and 13 of 14 free throws.
Imes has 38 3-pointers this year to pace Allegany, and Chorpenning has made 25.
Dylan Shaffer (6.9), Cayden Bratton (5.7 points), David Smith (4.0) and Blake Powell (3.6) round out the Alco rotation.
Imes and Allen are among the area’s best free-throw shooters. Imes has made 54 of 61 attempts (88.5%), and Allen is 57 of 68 (83.8%) from the charity stripe.
WestMAC title at stake
The claim to the Western Maryland Athletic Conference title is on the line. At 7-0, the Campers clinch the championship outright with a win over Fort Hill.
The Sentinels (5-1 WestMAC) can share the conference crown if they beat Alco on Friday and Southern (3-13 overall, 0-5 WestMAC) on Tuesday night.
Playoff implications
Home court advantage in the Class 1A West Region I playoffs is also at stake.
While Allegany has two more losses than Fort Hill overall, tournament games aren’t counted in Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association postseason seeding.
With those games removed, Fort Hill is a half-game ahead of Allegany with a 14-2 record compared to the Campers’ 14-3 mark.
The Campers went 1-1 at the Bill Bowers Christmas Classic, beating Eastern Tech, 64-41, and falling to St. Vincent Pallotti, 67-66. Fort Hill swept both games in the tournament (Eastern Tech 79-49, Pallotti 63-53).
Inclement weather in December has also thrown a wrench into the calculations.
Fort Hill’s early season contest with the Maryland School for the Deaf was postponed twice and won’t be made up; therefore, the Sentinels have just 19 countable regular-season games to the Campers’ 20.
That means the winner Friday controls its own destiny for the No. 1 seed.
A Fort Hill victory over Allegany would give it a game-and-a-half lead in the standings, meaning the Sentinels could split their final two games (Southern and Washington) and still get home court. Fort Hill would be 16-3 to Allegany’s 16-4 mark.
Allegany would be the region’s top seed with a 3-0 finish against Fort Hill, Shalom and Keyser. The Campers, at 17-3, would edge the Sentinels’ 16-3 record on percentage points.