Our Cal-Hi Sports predictions for the 12 CIF state championship games for boys and girls basketball this weekend at Sleep Train Arena sees the south winning a bulk of the plaques.
Note: To see our full breakdowns for each game, you need to be a Gold Club member of our site. It’s a great deal, still at less than $2 per month. For sign up info, CLICK HERE.
Here are the predicted scores for all 12 games:
BOYS
Open Division – Bishop O’Dowd (Oakland) 68, Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 64
Division I – Centennial (Corona) 73, Monte Vista (Danville) 70
Division II – St. John Bosco (Bellflower) 63, Folsom 58
Division III – Chaminade (West Hills) 67, Drake (San Anselmo) 51
Division IV – Bishop Montgomery (Torrance) 63, Moreau Catholic (Hayward) 55
Division V – St. Joseph Notre Dame (Alameda) 58, Renaissance Academy (La Canada) 53
GIRLS
Open Division – Long Beach Poly 54, Salesian (Richmond) 46
Division I – Canyon Springs (Moreno Valley) 68, Pleasant Grove (Elk Grove) 51
Division II – Chaminade (West Hills) 61, Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 58
Division III – Modesto Christian (Modesto) 62, Santa Barbara 56
Division IV – Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth) 64, Justin Siena (Napa) 47
Division V – Pinewood (Los Altos Hills) 59, La Jolla Country Day (La Jolla) 53
Nominations for the oldest and most prestigious all-state teams also are coming soon and not all of our all-state content is going to be free. Much of it will be for Gold Club members only. For sign up info, CLICK HERE.
4 Comments
What were you smoking when you picked Mater Dei to lose?
Easy to say now. If you were going to pick an upset that wasn’t a bad pick.
I’ll tell you why picking Bishop O’Dowd over Mater Dei in the State final was a risky guess. If you had followed Mater Dei’s season, you would have seen that they played incredibly solid defense. Having Stanley Johnson certainly gave them potentially an offense that could score in many ways, but the other four players were very good defending every type of offense. Even when their shooting was off they could stay in any game because of their defense. Stanley did make the team very potent offensively and he made each player better because of the focus on him. Every other player had a role and they played it well. Mater Dei had a lot of experience going up against a pretty difficult schedule. Being able to get through the CIFss Open division playoff was amazing. Yes, they had a few close games, but every every team played their best game against Mater Dei. Having that target on their back all season was a huge challenge. many also forget that the MD coaching staff has won championships with every style of play, they make significant adjustments and usually are right about player rotation and game management.
Over the past 33 years Mater Dei has been a major impact in every section and state playoff. When Mater Dei played Bishop O’Dowd in December, they learned a lot on how to play Bishop. How they covered Rabb in the final was brilliant, he was pretty much taken out of their offense. MJ Cage has really improved throughout the season, he has gotten more aggressive and developed his defensive skills.
If you saw that December meeting of MD and Bishop O’Dowd, you would have seen that MD could have won that game in regulation had they hit a few of their free throws. It was not a great shooting game for MD, but they still managed to win. I credit the MD coaching staff with one of the best jobs they have done, especially after loosing a few very good players at the start of the season and all the distractions that wen with that. Keeping them focused and building the teams confidence when many said that those player loses would cause them to loose 6 or 7 games, was a great coaching achievement.
Mater Dei’s role players over the years have always been great. And I agree the defensive coaching there is second to none. They weren’t going to let Rabb beat them and not enough other guys (other than Austin) scored enough for O’Dowd. One of the best aspects about Coach McKnight is picking great assistants. He also hired great coaches when he was AD.