Oliver finishes first in City League regular season

By Mike White | Friday, Feb. 26, 2010, 3 p.m.

Note: We'll have a live WPIAL quarterfinal playoff blog tonight. I will be attending the Highlands-West Allegheny game at Fox Chapel, but we'll have notes and updates from games around the WPIAL. Now for the City League ...

Perry was on top of the City League boys' basketball standings for just about the entire season. But the Commodores stumbled down the stretch and Oliver ended up as the No. 1 seed for the playoffs.

Oliver edged host Perry, 66-62, on Thursday to claim first place in the City in the regular season. It was a matchup of two teams going in opposite directions as Oliver won its 12th in a row. For Perry, it was the third loss in five games. The Commodores leaked oil heading for the finish line, losing to Peabody, Westinghouse and Oliver in the past few weeks.

Delvon Murray had 14 points, Phil Ferguson 14 and Evan Schell 11 for Oliver, which came back from an eight-point halftime deficit. Oliver ended up with a 14-2 record in the City and an 18-4 mark overall. Perry finished 13-3 and 17-4. The two teams split two games this season. The photo to the right is from their first meeting, won by Perry.

The City League playoffs start either Monday or Tuesday. The championship games for boys and girls will be Saturday, March 6, at one of the City League schools, depending on what teams are in the championship.

It's a little surprising the City League will be playing title games Saturday, the same day of five WPIAL championships. It was nice in recent years when the City League played championships on a day when there was no WPIAL title games. It sort of gave the City League the spotlight to themselves.

A City League boys' championship between Perry and Oliver is a strong possibility - except don't count out Allderdice. Allderdice has the size and talent to beat either of those teams in a playoff game. But Allderdice is a tough team to figure out. The Dragons are very inconsistent.