San Diego Prep Basketball : Four of the County’s Top Seven Teams Square Off in League Play Today

Of the 10 teams that appeared in The Times’ Top 10 for boys basketball last week, 8 maintained or improved their standings for this week’s rankings. However, with two important league games today involving four of the county’s top seven teams, there could be a shakeup next week.

The 3 p.m. City Eastern League game at Patrick Henry High School between the second-ranked Patriots and fifth-ranked Morse and the 5:30 p.m. Grossmont League contest matching fourth-ranked Monte Vista against seventh-ranked El Capitan at El Capitan highlight this week’s action.

Patrick Henry followed a 91-25 rout over Clairemont with a league-opening 77-37 victory over Mira Mesa last week to maintain its spot behind top-ranked Poway. Morse remains at No. 5 after beating Serra at home on Friday, 78-58.

Acute foresight was displayed by the Grossmont League schedule maker, who prevented co-leaders Monte Vista and El Capitan from meeting until tonight’s game, which completes the league’s first half of play. Both are 7-0 after Monte Vista beat Mount Miguel and Grossmont and El Capitan defeated Helix and El Cajon last week. El Capitan’s wins lifted the Vaqueros from ninth to seventh in the Top 10.

In other Top 10 action last week, Poway beat Fallbrook, 78-44, in its only Palomar League game behind the play of center John Colborne, who had 23 points, 14 rebounds and 5 blocked shots. No. 3 Sweetwater suffered no jet lag after returning from its trip to Yugoslavia and France, beating Southwest, 112-39, and Hilltop, 99-53, in two Metro League games.

Hoover beat Christian, 75-53, to remain sixth. El Camino’s victories against Escondido and Oceanside allowed it to remain at No. 8 despite a 65-49 loss to Carlsbad. Point Loma fell to No. 9 after a league-opening loss to Madison and Chula Vista replaced Serra at No. 10 after winning each of its three games last week.

Here is The Times’ Top 10: Pos. Team (League) Record 1. Poway (Palomar) 13-0 2. Patrick Henry (City Eastern) 14-0 3. Sweetwater (Metro-Mesa) 15-2 4. Monte Vista (Grossmont) 13-1 5. Morse (City Eastern) 7-3 6. Hoover (City Central) 13-2 7. El Capitan (Grossmont) 11-3 8. El Camino (Avocado) 11-2 9. Point Loma (City Eastern) 10-3 10.Chula Vista (Metro-South Bay) 10-5 Best of the rest: Carlsbad (Avocado, 10-4), Serra (City Eastern, 9-4), Kearny (City Western, 10-5), Helix (Grossmont, 10-5).