It’s time to get down to business.

The boys basketball team is entering postseason play this week and their road to Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis is a daunting one. They could have to go through the likes of Northrop, East Noble, Snider, Carmel, Homestead before they even reach Semi-State.

Luckily though, they got about as good of a draw as they could have hoped for having to only play one ‘contender’ en route to the championship game, whereas Snider will have to play an underrated Bishop Dwenger team before playing East Noble in the semifinal.

But Head Coach Marty Beasley took a very matter of fact approach to their draw. “We have to play three games in order to win” he said.

The first of those three games will come Tuesday night against the Northrop Bruins, a rematch from earlier this month when the Chargers defeated the Bruins on the road 63-50. In that matchup the Chargers found success in limiting the impact of Sydney Curry. The Northrop big man managed just 11 points compared to his season average of just over 18 per game. Curry still picked up a double-double with 13 rebounds, but was largely outdone on the glass by David Ejah who hauled in career-high 18 rebounds to go with 16 points for a double-double of his own.

Since then the Bruins have gone 1-3 with the lone win coming against Bellmont and the recent slump cost the Bruins, once 7-0 in conference play, to share the conference title three ways with a record of 7-2.

Another point of concern for the Bruins should be their 14 point loss to Class 1A #1 Blackhawk Christian on Thursday. While the Braves were 7-1 against SAC teams, the Chargers being the lone team to not play them, the loss doesn’t look good when paired with the Braves fits in defeating mid-level teams like South Side and Wayne.

However Beasley still wants his team to keep it simple against Northrop, one of his keys being managing the ball better.

If the Chargers can get past the Bruins, which is what my prediction is. that will land them a Friday night matchup with Dekalb, a team they beat 55-34 in early January.

The Barons are 6-18 overall with a 1-6 conference record and hold an 0-5 record against sectional opponents so unless a miracle happens, we’re going to go out on a limb here and say the Chargers should win this potential game.

Now for a brief look at the other side of the bracket for the sake of predictions.

The first game on that side of the bracket feature Snider and Bishop Dwenger. These two teams faced off on February 1st and the Panthers came out on top, winning by six points on the road. However I’m not totally sold on the Panthers just yet, at times this year they’ve proven to be inconsistent which gives me reason to think they’re still a year away, especially given that there are no seniors on the team. On the other hand, Dwenger has beaten quality teams like Homestead and Northrop which shows they can play with the big boys. I’ll pick Dwenger in this one.

The back half of Wednesday’s doubleheader pits NE8 Champion East Noble against 2-19 North Side. I’ll pick East Noble.

In the semifinal we are looking at Dwenger vs. East Noble. The Saints hosted the Knights earlier this month but fell 49-44. While the Saints have been good this year when it matters most, I don’t think it’ll be enough for them to overcome East Noble’s triple threat of Ali Ali, Brent Cox, and Hayden Jones. But this is one that could be similar to last years East Noble vs Carroll semifinal where it goes down to the wire. Either way I’ll pick East Noble.

That gives us an East Noble vs Carroll championship.

Looking at matchups, Ejah and Preston Shearer will be on Ali and Cox. If I had to guess Ejah will likely be on Ali as Shearer has drawn the big matchups down low for most of the season and he will certainly have his hands full with Cox who plays a similar game to Curry.

The guard will be crucial as the matchups down low will likely be cancel each other out. Ray Vollmer and Richie Gross have been great lately, Vollmer especially. If the Chargers are going to win, those two will have to shut down Jones.

For me, the X factor in this game is Ryan Preston. If he can contribute a lot of good minutes, I like the Chargers chances of moving on. But this point goes to a larger point, and that is depth being the key to winning this game. The bench players will play big roles in the outcome of this game. East Noble’s depth guys have a lot more due to the fact that they play weaker opponents than the Chargers do and that might be the advantage. But I also think the Chargers are more battle tested than the Knights. Which is more valuable? Hopefully we find out.

I’ll pick East Noble.