When the Harrisburg Patriot-News state basketball rankings came out earlier this week, Central Catholic was rated No. 3 in Class 3A.
Because of our general lack of success in the state tournament — the Vikings' 1986 state title team was our area's last — there's a tendency to scoff at such a high ranking.
But right now, Central is playing as well as any team in the area and looks like a team capable of making a run in the PIAA's version of March Madness.
"We've found a nice rhythm," said first-year coach Dennis Csensits. "We've had different kids step up and they now have a feel for their role. They're making some huge contributions."
No one is contributing more than star player Muhammad Ali Abdur-Rahkman, the area's leading scorer, who had a career-high 37 points against Liberty on Tuesday night. He has averaged 24.8 points per game during the team's current eight-game winning streak.
While continuing to attract lots of Division I interest (VCU and Xavier are among the many interested), Abdur-Rahkman has rounded into a complete player.
"As well as Muhammad has been scoring, the thing that's often overlooked with him is that he's one of our leaders in assists," Csensits said. "He has a pretty good feel for what's a good shot and what's not a good shot and has been doing a good job of getting everyone involved in the game."
The Vikes have played their last three games without point guard Jimmy Vaughan, who had a sprained ankle but is expected to return to the lineup Friday night when CCHS plays Northampton.
Without such a key player as Vaughan, everyone has had to step up their games.
"Besides Muhammad, Mike Kammerer continues to give us some really good minutes and has taken on more of a leadership role as a senior," Csensits said. "He obviously shoots the ball well but is very competitive and brings a lot of the intangibles to the game. And then Jean Lee Baez continues to improve. He might be one of the most improved players in the area."
A lot of the players have been in lead roles for several years now, but it wasn't always easy to keep them together when they were freshmen and sophomores. This year, the Vikes seem on the same page.
"They're maturing nicely," Csensits said. "And I still think they have some of their best basketball ahead of them."
With two losses, Central is one game behind Emmaus in the Lehigh Valley Conference West and will get another crack at the Green Hornets, who are the last team to beat CCHS.
That was on Dec. 21 and came on the heels of a loss to Allen three nights earlier.
Since then the Vikings haven't lost and have swept through the LVC East, generally considered the league's toughest division. They have also won a Christmas tournament at Elizabethtown and knocked off one of the Colonial League's best in Bangor.
With the exception of a Jan. 30 game against Stroudsburg at Rockne Hall, CCHS has nothing but LVC opponents left.
Right now, the Vikings seem on pace to get into the league tournament for the first time since 2008 and will be favored to win its third straight district gold.
Despite the rising expectations, Csensits, who played for John Donmoyer at Allen and Jim Hutnik at DeSales, isn't looking too far ahead.
"This has been a lot of fun and it has been a really good group of players to be around," he said. "They're a really talented group and pretty focused. We've just got to stay healthy and take care of the things we can. We also need to keep getting better. We want to be playing our best basketball going into the postseason."
Lincoln's big night
As the head coach and athletic director at Lincoln Leadership Academy on Allentown's East Side, David George was ecstatic about what happened on Saturday night when his Class A team defeated Dieruff 43-39 at Dick Schmidt Gym for arguably the biggest win in the program's brief two-year history.
"I was floating after that one," he said.
Yet, as a Dieruff grad, the experience left him with mixed emotions.
"I am a 1991 graduate of that school and coached the girls team there for five years," George said. "So the only bad part of the night was seeing how upset those kids were and their faces. I still care and love those kids at Dieruff. I think I got just as many hugs from the Dieruff kids as the Lincoln kids after the game."
George said the biggest factor in the upset win was familiarity.
"Our kids knew their kids so well," George said. "We're so close in location. There was friendly trash talk going back and forth all week."
Another factor was the return of Xavier Romero, one of the team's best players, to the lineup.
Romero had been out all season recovering from a torn ACL suffered last May.
"Xavier has the basketball IQ and having him back is a big help to us," George said. "He just doesn't have the lateral movement or the lift in his shot right now. But every day, he's getting better."
Also playing well with nine points against Dieruff, all in the second half, was freshman Dante Rockmore. His brother, Tyler, is a senior at Allen.
George said the team's goal is to get back to districts, where a crowded Class A field will feature, among others, defending champ Pius X, Moravian Academy and Schuylkill League powers Marian Catholic and Mahanoy Area.
Who's hot?
•His team may be scuffling lately, but Liberty's K.J. Williams scored 31 points against Central Dauphin and came back with a 21-point effort against Central Catholic.
•Saucon Valley has won four of its last seven after beginning the year 0-7. Within the past six games, junior Keith Mosher has had a 32-point game and totals of 23 and 21.
•Tamaqua can earn the 1,000th win in the program's history with a victory at North Schuylkill on Friday night.
•Allen freshman Zay Jennings continues to make his mark. In a loss to Easton on Tuesday night, Jennings led the Canaries with 17 points, five rebounds and two steals.
•Last week we wrote about the success that former Whitehall player Tony Medina is having as the head coach at Faith Christian Academy in Orlando, Fla. That success continued this week when Medina's team defeated Orlando Christian Prep, which was No. 1 ranked in Class 2A in the state.
Did you know?
•Liberty senior Greg Noack has been nominated for the McDonald's All American Game in Chicago. The Monmouth-bound Noack is one of more than 800 players being considered to play at Chicago's United Center on April 3. The 24-person final roster for the game will be announced at 5 p.m. Feb. 14 on ESPNU.
•Due to a death in the family of Notre Dame coach Pat Boyle, the Northwestern-Notre Dame game next week has been moved from Tuesday to Wednesday.
