Both Pinewood and St. Mary’s of Stockton receive four-spot bumps in this week’s rankings and are now showing at No. 6 and No. 7 overall in the state. No. 1 Archbishop Mitty also may have to beat them both to earn place in CIF Open Division state championship.
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(After games of Saturday, March 6)
(Previous ranking in parentheses)
1. (1) Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 25-2
St. Mary’s-bound Madeline Holland shined with 23 points and six rebounds to lead the Monarchs past Pinewood 65-57 to win the CIF Central Coast Section Open Division title. That also cemented the team’s No. 1 seed in the NorCal Open Division.
Akayla Hackson of new No. 6 Pinewood looks for openings during last year’s CIF NorCal Open Division final. Photo: SportStarsOnline.com.
The Golden Eagles cruised by Clovis to win another CIF Central Section Division I title. We thought the possibility of putting them in the north all along was just for a worst-case scenario and we were right. They are the top seed in the SoCal Open Division.
3. (3) Long Beach Poly (Long Beach) 25-3
After winning the CIF Southern Section Open Division over Harvard-Westlake, the Jackrabbits got the NO. 2 seed in the South for the Open Division, but probably got the easier game than No. 1 Clovis West with a home matchup vs L.A. City winner Fairfax.
4. (4) Mission Hills (San Marcos) 29-2
The Grizzlies won the CIF San Diego Section Open Division over Bishop’s of La Jolla and have not lost to a team from Southern California all season. Their two losses are to Sacred Heart Cathedral of San Francisco and No. 1 Archbishop Mitty.
5. (5) Carondelet (Concord) 28-4
Head coach Elgin Leslie’s squad earned the program’s 12th NCS title with a win over Heritage of Brentwood, but this time it was in Division I. It’s quite difficult to rank the next six teams in Northern California, but the Cougars are solid in this spot.
6. (10) Pinewood (Los Altos Hills) 24-3
There was evidence to move up the Panthers even higher than Carondelet, and they did have a strong week with their win over Sacred Heart Cathedral (previous No. 9) and then a strong showing vs. Mitty. But Carondelet did nothing to deserve being dropped and Pinewood is coming up four spots regardless.
7. (11) St. Mary’s (Stockton) 20-8
Also a team that arguably could be higher, considering where it was before an injury to All-American Aquira DeCosta. After winning 10th straight section title, Rams still go up four spots and might be looking at a trip to San Jose to play Mitty in the NorCal Open semifinals.
8. (8) Harvard-Westlake (North Hollywood) 25-4
The CIFSS Open Division runner-up will take on all-time state career scoring leader Destiny Littleton and her team from Bishop’s of La Jolla in a SoCal Open Division game on Saturday.
