Here’s one place to check for the statewide angle for each of the CIF’s divisional boys basketball brackets from Division 1 to Division 5.
DIVISION I
Top seed in the north James Logan of Union City (25-6) had a bye. Top seed in the south Etiwanda (26-5) downed St. Augustine of San Diego 68-57.
Upset Alert: Sacred Heart Cathedral of San Francisco continued its surprising postseason run by going to Fresno and downing a Bullard of Fresno team 65-64 that last Saturday went to overtime with Clovis West in the Central Section D1 final. The Irish (14-14) are facing No. 2 eed Branson of Ross (29-2) next in the quarterfinals. That will just be jaunt across the Golden Gate Bridge.
Upset Alert: It wasn’t an upset by the seedings, but we had Harvard-Westlake (21-9) still in the State Top 20 after its five-point CIFSS D1 semifinal playoff loss to Santa Margarita and the Wolverines were defeated on Tuesday by Birmingham of Lake Balboa 69-67.
Thursday’s Most Intriguing Game: San Joaquin Memorial of Fresno (22-10) at Bishop O’Dowd of Oakland (22-8). Big-time junior Jalen Green poured in 39 points for the Panthers in their 94-80 win on Tuesday at Dublin. O’Dowd bounced back from a loss to Moreau Catholic in the NCS D2 final to beat a San Leandro team (57-54) that it lost to in the regular season.
Bryce Johnson has been a top player at St. Mary’s for three seasons. Photo: Clifford Oto/RecordNet.com.
DIVISION 2
Top seed in the north St. Mary’s of Stockton (26-6*) won at home over the Carmel Padres 73-56 and will now host the Serra Padres of San Mateo on Thursday in the regional quarterfinals. Top seed in the south Rancho Cucamonga (25-9) had a bye.
Upset Alert: We would have thought Clovis North (21-10) would have done better since the Broncos lost in double-overtime in their section semifinals to Clovis West. But maybe they were still shell-shocked from losing that game as visiting Rocklin (from the same league as Folsom) won on the road 83-72. The Thunder improved to 26-5.
No, it wasn’t an upset with No. 12 Cathedral Catholic of San Diego (24-9) winning at No. 5 La Canada (27-7) 67-55. The Dons can do serious damage in this bracket.
Thursday’s Most Intriguing Game: Rolling Hills Prep of San Pedro (26-6) at Colony of Ontario (28-5). Both teams are coming in off of impressive first-round wins and just love the coaching matchup of Harvey Kitani (RHP) and Jerry De Fablis (Colony).
DIVISION 3
Top seed in the north Redwood of Larkspur (24-8) defeated Santa Cruz 55-38. Top seed in the south Montgomery of San Diego (27-5) was stunned in overtime by University of Irvine 78-74. The Aztecs were the only top seeded boys team in the regional playoffs played on Tuesday night that lost. We also had one lose for the girls.
Thursday’s Most Intriguing Game: The team we thought should have been No. 1 seed in the north, Stuart Hall of San Francisco (28-5), will be facing Palo Alto (19-9). Stuart Hall won its first-round game 60-41 over Leland of San Jose. Paly went to Sonora and knocked off the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D4 champions 68-62. Earlier this season, the Vikings lost to Stuart Hall 47-42. They also lost to Carlmont of Belmont in December and recently beat the Scots by 15.
DIVISION 4
Top seed in the north St. Mary’s of Berkeley (25-7) knocked off Enterprise of Redding 63-51. Top seed in the south Ribet Academy of La Canada (23-3) had a bye.
Upset Alert: Wouldn’t really have one, but will give kudos to Central Valley Christian of Visalia (20-8) going all the way down to Valhalla of El Cajon and beating the Norsemen 55-46. The Cavaliers next game is at Ribet and it would be hard for them to travel back and forth so hope they’re just staying south of the Grapevine.
Thursday’s Most Intriguing Game: St. Mary’s of Berkeley hosting Mission of San Francisco. The Bears (22-9) won on Tuesday against West Campus of Sacramento and are looking to go on a similar state title run like they did two years ago with a superior team in D3.
Hate It When We’re Right: We said beforehand that unbeaten Roybal of Los Angeles (21-0) shouldn’t have been in D4 and should have been in D5. Roybal lost on Tuesday to Providence of Burbank 73-33.
DIVISION 5
Top seed in the north Mt. Shasta (30-1) impressed with an 89-57 victory over Ripon Christian. Top seed in the south Foothill of Bakersfield (20-11), which seems like was mistakenly put in D5 due to the team it beat in its section final (Bakersfield Christian) being in D3, defeated Bassett of La Verne 72-57.
Upset Alert: We’ll go with Nueva School of San Mateo (23-5) putting itself on the map with a 79-66 win at Liberty of Madera Ranchos (28-5). We thought Liberty should have been seeded even higher than No. 5 in the NorCal bracket.
Thursday’s Most Intriguing Game: Argonaut of Jackson (21-11) at Dinuba (25-8). Argonaut is trying to get back to the D5 state final after winning NorCal title in this division last year. Dinuba won its game on Tuesday 74-60 vs. Sacramento Adventist.
One Comment
CIF tournament is great, however…..Sad to see the day of the small public school competition has come to an end. CIF officials with pressure from the newspaper boys that want BIG BIGGER and BIGGEST, have used a rule to protect small schools and perverted it to create the master tournament. They have lost sight that their job is to protect competitive equality for all California schools not meddle on crafting outcomes.
Schools with 2000 or more kids have dropped down to the lower divisions and are now dominating play and hosting game$. Small public schools cant even compete with small public schools on a state platform. Emphasis has been placed on a great big tournament not providing a platform for schools of all size