Sophomore guard Majesty Cade (left) has been one the key players recently for D1 No. 1 team at Etiwanda. At right is a cropped look at some of the players and coaches for unbeaten Mary Star of San Pedro (No. 1 in state for D3) after they won CIFSS title. Photos: @Coach_Delus / Twitter.com & @MSHSHoops / Twitter.com.
We also have been doing divisional state rankings for the girls for many years as well, based on the CIF’s and our own five divisions. For this year, we are combining the teams in the SoCal regional brackets (AA & A) into one division and then injecting where the NorCal teams would fit in based on our own criteria. There are three NorCal teams that are close to the top — St. Mary’s of Stockon (D1), Priory of Los Altos Hills (D3) and Santa Cruz (D4) — but only two of them can move to No. 1 if the No. 1 team loses in its regional final. Go inside for all of the details.
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All teams are ranked in the same order as our overall State TOP 25 Rankings, adjusted for results so far this week and done in consultation with associate editor & girls basketball lead analyst Harold Abend.
All regional finals slated for Saturday night (unless noted).
Since all of our previous division rankings are done in five divisions and since this year’s format for the SoCal regionals of adding double the number of divisions so that the playoffs could be done in one week was a one-time deal, we decided to combine teams from the AA and A brackets into one ranking. The CIF will go back to the traditional five divisions for next year and continues to prefer to have all championship finals at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. Obviously, since the entire SoCal bracket was seeded with competitive equity criteria, teams from the AA bracket have an advantage over teams from A.
Teams from Northern California sections that did not have playoffs this year were placed into the same divisions in which they participated in last season. We don’t have the methods to place teams on our own and while we’re critical of a lot of small schools having to be D1 or D2 due to competitive equity as well as large schools being in low divisions we again didn’t have the methods to jump teams around where we think they belong.
Brooke Demetre will end memorable career and season on Saturday night at Mater Dei. Photo: Harold Abend.
OPEN DIVISION
1. Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 22-0*
2. Centennial (Corona) 24-1*
3. Clovis West (Fresno) 20-1
4. Cathedral Catholic (San Diego) 20-4
5. Harvard-Westlake (Studio City) 22-4
6. Pinewood (Los Altos Hills) 16-0
7. Bonita Vista (Chula Vista) 23-4
8. Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 13-2
9. La Jolla Country Day (La Jolla) 16-5
*SoCal Open Div Finals:
Centennial at Mater Dei
Notes: These are all of the teams from the CIF SoCal Open Division plus Pinewood & Mitty, which played in the CIF Central Coast Section Open Division and therefore would have qualified for a NorCal Open Division. We didn’t put St. Mary’s of Stockton in an Open Division state ranking since the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section did not even have section playoffs.
DIVISION I
1. Etiwanda 18-4*
2. St. Mary’s (Stockton) 8-1
3. Windward (Los Angeles) 14-3
4. Lynwood 13-4*
5. Salesian (Richmond) 12-1
6. West (Torrance) 18-4
7. Orangewood Academy (Garden Grove) 13-9
8. Long Beach Poly (Long Beach) 14-2*
9. Esperanza (Anaheim) 22-3*
10. Rosary (Fullerton) 17-5*
11. Fairmont Prep (Anaheim) 17-9
12. Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth) 20-5
13. San Ramon Valley (Danville) 11-0
14. Antelope 9-1
15. Bishop O’Dowd (Oakland) 1-3
*SoCal Regional Finals:
(D1-AA) Etiwanda vs. Lynwood
(D1-A) Long Beach Poly/Esperanza vs. Rosary
Notes: Etiwanda has been the highest-ranked among these teams for a couple of weeks and would be No. 1 if it beats Lynwood to end the season. St. Mary’s (with wins over Mitty and Salesian but with a loss to Clovis West) probably doesn’t have a way to move up to No. 1 even if Etiwanda loses to Lynwood. In that situation, Lynwood will have won out in a strong bracket and will have avenged at least one of its losses.
The Long Beach Poly-Esperanza matchup wasn’t included in these rankings since it had to be moved to Friday from Thursday due to Esperanza’s graduation ceremonies.
More Teams: Bishop Montgomery (Torrance) 11-6, Bishop’s (La Jolla) 12-9, Camarillo 11-2, Caruthers 19-2, Carondelet (Concord) 11-2, Clovis 11-6, Folsom 7-1, Miramonte (Orinda) 12-2, Mission Hills (San Marcos) 21-7, Serra (Gardena) 11-3.
DIVISION II
1. Alemany (Mission Hills) 18-2*
2. Mater Dei Catholic (Chula Vista) 19-9*
3. Eisenhower (Rialto) 12-2
4. El Camino (Oceanside) 17-5*
5. Paloma Valley (Menifee) 13-5
6. Westlake (Westlake Village) 20-3*
7. Del Oro (Loomis) 10-3
8. Sage Hill (Newport Beach) 19-7
9. Sequoia (Redwood City) 8-1
10. Righetti (Santa Maria) 14-3
*SoCal Regional Finals:
(D2-AA) Alemany vs. Mater Dei Catholic
(D2-A) El Camino (Oceanside) vs. Westlake
Notes: Alemany has been the only team in this group that has been in our overall State Top 25. If the Warriors were upset by MD Catholic, it’s also an easy call to just elevate the Crusaders to the top. Two key results that impacted this order was MD Catholic having a six-point head-to-head win over El Camino of Oceanside and Paloma Valley having a head-to-head win over Westlake.
More Teams: American (Fremont) 9-1, El Camino Real (Woodland Hills) 6-5, Grant (Sacramento) 10-0, Montgomery (Santa Rosa) 9-1, Ontario Christian 22-3, Orcutt Academy (Orcutt) 10-6, Westview (San Diego) 17-8.
DIVISION III
1. Mary Star (San Pedro) 22-0*
2. Priory (Los Altos Hills) 10-4
3. Vanden (Fairfield) 11-1
4. Rancho Bernardo (San Diego) 21-8*
5. Buchanan (Clovis) 14-8*
6. Newport Harbor (Newport Beach) 19-3
7. Lynbrook (San Jose) 16-3
8. Westchester (Los Angeles) 4-5
9. Lick-Wilmerding (San Francisco) 10-0
10. Del Norte (San Diego) 14-12*
*SoCal Regional Finals
(3-AA) Mary Star vs. Rancho Bernardo
(3-A) Buchanan vs. Del Norte
Notes: If Mary Star closes out its unbeaten season with a regional title, the girls surely would deserve to be No. 1 for this state division. If the Stars lose to Rancho Bernardo, though, other teams come into play. Three of them — Priory, Vanden and Buchanan — have huge lopsided losses to top overall squads: Priory vs. Archbishop Mitty, Vanden to Salesian and Buchanan twice to Clovis West. The reason we like Priory best is for its two wins over Menlo School of Atherton and that it was a CCS Open Division squad.
More Teams: Bakersfield 9-2, Benicia 9-2, Chaparral (Temecula) 14-5, Leuzinger (Lawndale) 13-3, Marin Catholic (Kentfield) 9-5, Nipomo 9-8, Pleasant Valley (Chico) 9-2, Vista del Lago (Folsom) 14-2.
Bella Stevens was the leading scorer this season for 18-1 Santa Cruz. Photo: Shmuel Thaler / Santa Cruz Sentinel.
DIVISION IV
1. Roosevelt (Fresno) 20-2*
2. Santa Cruz 18-1
3. Piedmont 14-2
4. South Pasadena 16-6*
5. Eastlake (Chula Vista) 16-10
6. Colfax 8-3
7. Bakersfield Christian 17-6*
8. Our Lady of Peace (San Diego) 18-5*
9. Los Angeles C.E.S. (L.A.) 6-3
10. Agoura (Agoura Hills) 14-6
*SoCal Regional Finals
(4-AA) Roosevelt vs. South Pasadena
(4-A) Bakersfield Chritian vs. Our Lady of Peace
Notes: This is the second divisional No. 1 ranking that could go to a NorCal team if a favored team loses in its last game. In this situation, it’s Roosevelt of Fresno at the top with Santa Cruz coming in at No. 2. If Roosevelt were to lose to South Pasadena, the Cardinals from the CCS could move up. They won the CCS D3 title by avenging their only loss with a win over Aptos. The team didn’t go far for games outside its county, but this is D4 we’re talking about, not one of the higher divisions.
More Teams: Argonaut (Jackson) 4-1, Half Moon Bay 11-4, Orestimba (Newman) 11-2, Paso Robles 14-4, Valley Christian (Cerritos) 12-11
DIVISION V
1. Strathmore 20-6*
2. Fallbrook 23-8*
3. St. Joseph Academy (San Marcos) 23-3
4. San Fernando 10-0*
5. Trinity Classical (Santa Clarita) 14-4*
6. Trinity (Weaverville) 6-0
7. Classical Academy (Escondido) 18-10
8. University (San Francisco) 7-2
9. Sacramento Adventist (Carmichael) 13-2
10. Taft (Woodland Hills) 2-6
*SoCal Regional Finals
(5-AA) Strathmore vs. Fallbrook
(5-A) San Fernando vs. Trinity Classical
(6-AA) Victory Christan Academy (Chula Vista) vs. Corcoran
Notes: Strathmore playing a school so much bigger than itself for a regional title is similar to the football team having to play Milpitas for a state title. Fallbrook being in D5 probably shouldn’t happen, but if it wins it would go in front of Strathmore for the final rankings. This also will be the final game in the prolific scoring career of Strathmore’s Jazmine Soto.
San Fernando at 10-0 being placed in D5-A is hard to figure out. That’s even more crazy when you see the Tigers are still in the top 25 of the MaxPreps computer at No. 24. No offense, but that’s completely wrong so when people quote computer rankings to us as if they’re legit and we’re not it’s hard not to just laugh at them.
The D6-AA final is actually being played on Friday night so it will be done by the time many people are seeing these rankings. We will only be able to do D6 rankings separately when the entire state can be in D6.
More Teams: Athenian (Danville) 6-1, Corcoran 9-7*, Millennium (Tracy) 10-1,
Pierce (Arbuckle) 7-4, Pilibos (Los Angeles) 12-6, Poly (Sun Valley) 8-3, Ramona (Riverside) 9-10, Victory Christian Academy (Chula Vista) 14-6*.
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
