1. Brookfield Central (13-1, 7-1) – The Lancers lack of height is starting to come to light a little more, but they still only have one loss. But they have impressive wins over Wisconsin Lutheran (58-47), Menomonee Falls (78-75) and Wauwatosa East (59-53) in the last 10 days.
Gage Malensek has continued to show why he is one of the best players in the area, scoring 49 points (16.3 ppg) and hitting 24-of-25 free throws as Central puts the ball in his hands down the stretch.
Junior Andres Peralta-Werns continues to step up his game (14, 16, 15) and sophomore Cole Nau has chipped in with 7 rebounds, 4 assists vs. Wisco, 19 points vs Falls and 7 points and 6 rebounds vs Tosa East.
They host Germantown (6-7) in the Luke Homan Memorial Showcase on Saturday and former Brookfield Central coach Mark Adams will be honored in a pre-game ceremony at 3:45 p.m. The host West Allis Central on Feb. 1.
2. New Berlin Eisenhower (8-5, 5-4) – Ike is starting to get their act together. Coach Dave Scheidegger has 4 solid starters in guards Bryce Miller and Bryce Wesling and forwards Sullivan Kulju and Matt Rolefson and plenty of solid depth.
The Lions have won two of their last three games, beating Brookfield East and Wauwatosa West and losing to powerful Pewaukee in a close game. This week they have Shorewood and Greenfield on Friday and Tuesday in conference games and face Wauwatosa East in the Luke Homan Memorial Showcase on Saturday night at 9 p.m. That game could affect my rankings next week.
3. Wauwatosa West (8-6, 4-4) – West gets the benefit of the doubt because they beat Wauwatosa East, but after watching the Red Raiders almost beat Brookfield Central on Tuesday, this could be reversed.
Coach Craig Stelse’s guys lost a thriller at Pius XI (71-67) and dropped their second game to Eisenhower (71-60), so I won’t hold that against them. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why they can’t beat the Lions.
Up next for the Trojans are Cudahy (1-7) and Brown Deer (7-2), with the latter game being an extremely telling game.
5. Wauwatosa East (7-7, 5-3) – The Red Raiders have lost two of their last three games, losing to Marquette and Brookfield Central. They had a bad first half against the Hilltoppers and were never in the game. They could have beat Brookfield Central, but missed 14 contested lay-ups. They rallied in the second half to beat Brookfield East.
The Red Raiders will see what they are made of, because they face three tough games in a row against Eisenhower on Saturday before hosting Marquette on Tuesday and Menomonee Falls on Friday.
5. Brookfield East (7-7, 5-3) – The Spartans lost close games to Eisenhower and Tosa East and then blew out West Allis Hale so they played better than the scoreboard showed. They face Menomonee Falls on Tuesday and Sussex Hamilton on Feb. 2 and the young Spartans continue to get their act together.
6. New Berlin West (4-8, 1-8) – With the loss of sophomore point guard Joe Robey to a leg injury, this is not the same Vikings team. Senior Fred Cottrell has taken on the bulk of the scoring load.
The Vikings lost to Greenfield and Pius XI to extend their losing streak to three games as Cottrell had 31 points in the two games.
Next up are winnable games with South Milwaukee, Holman and Shorewood as each team as one conference win.
