Eagles leave no doubt who’s No. 1

Nobody hands out any hardware in the middle of January.

Nobody is crowned midseason champion.

Nobody even cares, come March, what team was playing at the highest level after nine or 10 games.

But some team has to be No. 1 in South Jersey just as the conference schedules start to heat up and just as everybody begins to jostle for seeding before the tournament cutoff date.

Somebody has to be The Team To Beat.

It says here that team is Paul VI after an impressive week in which the Eagles beat two of the top six squads in South Jersey by a combined 27 points.

"We can be the best team around if we play our best," Paul VI senior Rob Poole said. "Everybody is contributing. Everybody is playing defense."

The Eagles ran their record to 9-0 and capped a five-day flourish with an imposing 61-45 victory over previously undefeated Lenape on Saturday before a big crowd in Paul VI's gymnasium.

On Tuesday, Paul VI scored a 57-46 victory over Shawnee. In between, the Eagles beat Seneca by 69-39.

Both big victories were marked by late-game surges that showcased the Eagles' ability to use pressure defense and transition offense to break away from quality opponents.

Against Shawnee, Paul VI scored the last 12 points of the game. Against Lenape, it was the first 15 points of the fourth quarter.

"We're a real good team right now, and we're trying to be a great team," Paul VI junior guard Ron Curry said. "We're all playing together."

Curry's emergence as one of the best players in South Jersey has been one key to Paul VI's rise to the top of the rankings, which will become official Monday. The 6-foot-2 junior seems to get better every week. He was the best player on the court again Saturday with 23 points and six steals.

But the Eagles have talent all over the floor, and on the bench, too.

Poole, who has been rebounding well all season, is starting to regain his scoring touch. The Siena-bound swingman scored 49 this past week.

Junior guard Kris O'Connor is a disruptive defensive presence who can hit an open three-pointer, and junior center Roosevelt Cubbage showed his value to the Eagles by scoring six consecutive points in the pivotal stretch of the fourth quarter against Lenape.

"They're going to make a run at somebody," Lenape coach Chuck Guittar said of Paul VI's championship chances.

Paul VI is a work in progress, like every other team. And this is a strange season, marked by so much balance that it's not tough to imagine the No. 25 team going eye-to-eye with the No. 1 team.

Good luck figuring out that No. 25 team.

But after four weeks, that No. 1 team is Paul VI.