Big players in the middle for state-ranked teams are Thomas Welsh from Loyola of Los Angeles and Zoe Correal from Salesian of Richmond. Photos: Scott Kurtz & Willie Eashman.
Mater Dei remains on top in both genders despite girls dropping game to St. Mary’s of Berkeley. Boys teams on the move include Sierra Canyon of Chatsworth and Capital Christian of Sacramento while on the girls side watch out for Sierra Canyon as well plus Chaminade of West Hills.
Check below for this week’s new list of the State Top 20 boys and girls basketball rankings.
To read our breakdowns on each Top 20 team, why some of these rankings moves were made, which teams are on the bubble and for the first CIF divisional state rankings for both boys and girls basketball, you need to be a member of our Gold Club. Join our team today by CLICKING HERE..
NEW BOYS BASKETBALL
TOP 20 OVERALL RANKINGS
Sierra Canyon of Chatsworth, made up primarily of freshmen and sophomores, makes a big splash in this week’s rankings at No. 3 behind top-ranked Mater Dei and Loyola. We don’t drop Etiwanda too far because it looks like it will get guard Jordan McLaughlin back quicker than originally expected and the Eagles are one of many teams who will be stronger after January 6 when winter transfers become eligible to play.
After repeating as champions of the Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas with impressive wins over No. 7 Redondo Union (84-38) and No. 3 Bishop O’Dowd (63-59), No. 1 Mater Dei returned to Orange County and routed four teams at the Orange Holiday Classic, including Pasadena in the title game 75-54.
(Compiled by Ronnie Flores with assistance from Mark Tennis; updated through games played Saturday, Jan. 4; previous rating in parentheses)
Coach and trainer Chris Asher works with state stat stars and players from state-ranked teams of all ages, helping them to improve their speed, quickness and agility. He is based in Hollywood, also has a role with the UCLA track program and serves athletes within many miles of his location. For more about him, CLICK HERE. For more about his Gold Medal Excellence training program, CLICK HERE.
1. (1) Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 14-0
2. (4) Loyola (Los Angeles) 13-0
3. (NR) Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth) 13-1
4. (5) Centennial (Corona) 12-2
5. (3) Bishop O¹Dowd (Oakland) 5-3
6. (2) Etiwanda 13-3
7. (7) Redondo Union (Redondo Beach) 12-3
8. (6) Bishop Montgomery (Torrance) 13-1
9. (13) Capital Christian (Sacramento) 14-2
10. (8) Westchester (Los Angeles) 12-4
11. (11) Compton 11-3
12. (14) Cantwell Sacred Heart (Montebello) 11-2
13. (16) Chaminade (West Hills) 12-1
14. (17) Jesuit (Carmichael) 14-0
15. (20) Monte Vista (Danville) 12-0
16. (9) St. John Bosco (Bellflower) 8-5
17. (NR) Chino Hills 9-4
18. (NR) Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 8-2
19. (10) Mayfair (Lakewood) 9-5
20. (NR) El Camino Real (Woodland Hills) 11-4
Dropped Out: Previous No. 12 Long Beach Poly (Long Beach); No. 15 Serra (San Mateo); No. 18 De La Salle (Concord); No. 19 St. Mary¹s (Stockton).
NEW GIRLS BASKETBALL
TOP 20 OVERALL RANKINGS
The new top team from Northern California makes a huge move up after St. Mary’s of Berkeley beat Mater Dei 55-41 last weekend in the Paul Pierce Real Run Showcase at Inglewood for arguably the biggest win in school history.
The Panthers lost by 13 to Mater Dei in the semis of the Joe Smith Division of the Nike TOC but since then they pinned a loss on previous No. 3 St. Mary’s of Stockton in the third-place game, and then rested up for the rematch with Mater Dei. St. Mary’s then closed out the holiday season with an easy win over Corona Centennial on Saturday in the Showcase.
Mater Dei lost its first game of the season so it remained No. 1 in the state. St. Mary’s, in addition to losing to Mater Dei earlier, also has a loss to Bishop O’Dowd of Oakland.
Windward’s Kristen Simon will play next for UCLA. Photo: Harold Abend.
(Compiled by Harold Abend; updated through games played Saturday, Jan. 4; previous rating in parentheses)
1. (1) Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 11-1
2. (2) Long Beach Poly (Long Beach) 9-1
3. (12) St. Mary’s (Berkeley) 8-2
4. (3) St. Mary’s (Stockton) 9-3
5. (6) Windward (Los Angeles) 11-2
6. (10) Carondelet (Concord) 7-2
7. (7) Salesian (Richmond) 7-4
8. (11) Bishop O’Dowd (Oakland) 8-3
9. (4) Miramonte (Orinda) 12-0
10. (5) Serra (Gardena) 7-2
11. (NR) Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth 12-1
12. (13) Etiwanda 8-4
13. (9) Bishop’s (La Jolla) 15-1
14. (NR) Chaminade (West Hills) 12-3
15. (NR) Clovis West (Fresno) 12-2
16. (14) Santiago (Corona) 12-2
17. (NR) Camarillo 12-3
18. (NR) Enterprise (Redding) 13-1
19. (17) Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 7-4
20. (19) St. Ignatius (San Francisco) 10-1
Dropped Out: Previous No. 8 Sacramento, No. 15 Canyon Springs (Moreno Valley), No. 18 Lynwood, No. 20 Huntington Beach.
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @CalHiSports
5 Comments
To the joker on norcalpreps!
What on earth are you talking about ripping on Harold Abend! If anyone made a mess of the rankings it is Clay Kallam. Explain how a team wins the best HS tournament in the nation, then the WJC an extremely tough schedule, beats SMB in a more difficult situation in AZ ie tournament and then SMB rests and avoids the competition in their own backyard just to play MD. And if you say they handled MD then what did MD do to SMB on a bigger stage in AZ!
Clay has 3 teams ahead of MD who they beat and who have worse records. SMB has a bad loss to O’Dowd an 8-4 team. If anything at worse the SMB v MD games would be awash, so how does a team drop to 12 and SMB moves up? ( note Clay says the only team to beat SMB is O’dowd – wrong on that 1 also).
So Clay rewards a team with a bad loss and who avoids teams in their own backyard and punishes a team that plays a the toughest schedule and only has 1 loss who they beat prior- really what on earth is his criteria if its not on win/loss, strength of schedule, good v bad losses – purely opinion biased toward 2 players going to his favorite team CAL!!!!! Thats the only plausible answer I could find!
BTW ESPN seems to agree with Harold – go figure!
BTW USA today disagrees with Clay too and agrees with Harold!
Just so we’re clear. Harold and I discuss the girls basketball rankings every week. It was a no-brainer to me to leave Mater Dei in front of Berkeley St. Mary’s. We’ve had similar situations in the past and in other sports. Clay started doing rankings for me about 10-11 years ago for Student Sports magazine and if he was still doing them for us he’d have had those rankings edited. People also need to simply settle down. It’s only the first week in January. And we should be glad we’ll have an open division to settle it on the court. If St. Mary’s was only going to be going for a D4 state title the rest of the way, it would really be a mess.
What’s a “joke” to me is seeing Clay’s rankings side-by-side with computer rankings that are the biggest joke of all…