Damien players collected a lot of hardware early in the season when they won title at St. John Bosco tourney. The CIFSS Open Division team started D1 SoCal playoffs with win vs Mission Hills. Photo: @DamienBasketball.
Note: We hope you enjoy this free post on CalHiSports.com. After these first rankings, next week’s update and then the final state rankings are available only to our Gold Club members as well as our state stat star of the week honor rolls. To check out getting a Gold Club membership to see all of those rankings plus all of our updated state record lists, totally authentic historical features, recruiting player ratings and more, CLICK HERE.
Note: These rankings are based on the usual factors of schedule strength, head-to-head wins and results from the first round of the regional playoffs. We can’t obviously do division rankings until after the CIF announces regional brackets since no one knows which divisions to put any of the teams in. We also like to do these rankings since the upcoming divisional all-state teams will be based on these same divisions.
(After games of Tuesday, March 1)
OPEN DIVISION
1. Centennial (Corona) 30-1
2. Harvard-Westlake (Studio City) 24-3
3. Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth) 24-4
4. Campolindo (Moraga) 27-1
5. Bishop Montgomery (Torrance) 19-3*
6. Clovis West (Fresno) 30-1
7. Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 26-4
8. Modesto Christian 26-5
9. St. Augustine (San Diego) 23-7
10. St. Joseph (Santa Maria) 27-3
11. De La Salle (Concord) 22-5
12. Archbishop Riordan (SF) 20-8
13. Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 23-5
14. Sheldon (Sacramento) 22-10
Notes: Both Centennial and Campolindo received byes in the first round of the regional playoffs. Both brackets therefore only consisted of seven teams. All 14 teams were written up in this week’s State TOP 25 overall rankings.
Emmer Nichols had 16 pts for Sacred Heart Prep in its win on Tuesday vs Dougherty Valley. Photo: Twitter.com.
DIVISION I
1. Damien (La Verne) 28-4
2. St. Bernard (Playa del Rey) 22-6
3. Crean Lutheran (Irvine) 22-6
4. Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks) 20-7
5. Village Christian (Sun Valley) 28-4
6. Inderkum (Sacramento) 27-2
7. Lincoln (Stockton) 26-5
8. Sacred Heart Prep (Atherton) 24-4
9. St. Anthony (Long Beach) 18-8
10. JSerra (SJ Capistrano) 21-10
11. La Costa Canyon (Carlsbad) 21-7
12. St. Ignatius (San Francisco) 21-7
13. Clovis North (Fresno) 19-11
14. Oakland Tech (Oakland) 22-4
15. Folsom 25-6
Bubble: Granada (Livermore) 17-8, Long Beach Poly (Long Beach) 22-7*, Miramonte (Orinda) 24-6*, San Joaquin Memorial (Fresno) 25-8*, San Ysidro 23-10*, St. John Bosco (Bellflower) 23-10*.
Notes: SoCal top seed Damien opened up with an 81-50 win over Mission Hills of San Marcos. Head coach Mike Leduc, he of recent 1,000 wins fame, and squad face JSerra in Thursday’s quarterfinals. The Spartans have been as high as fifth in the state and arguably could have been the fifth team from the CIFSS Open Division taken up into the SoCal Open instead of Mater Dei. Things are more wide-open in the north. We have Inderkum (No. 2 seed) higher than No. 1 Sacred Heart Prep due to a head-to-head win and we have Lincoln of Stockton much higher than a No. 11 seed since its playoff loss was by one-point to Sheldon (Open Division) and it also has a win over SHP plus Inderkum. All three teams won on Tuesday. No. 4 seed Miramonte in the north and No. 5 San Ysidro in the south were the highest seeds to lose, but we already had Village Christian higher than San Ysidro in our rankings and Clovis North was a team that has had some big wins despite its 11 losses, including one vs Modesto Christian. The Broncos winning at Miramonte wasn’t that much of a surprise.
Jazz Gardner is one of the best junior big men in the nation. Photo: NothingButNet.com.
DIVISION II
1. Elk Grove 24-6
2. Foothill (Tustin) 28-3
3. Branson (Ross) 26-5
4. Los Altos (Hacienda Heights) 24-6
5. Rancho Cucamonga 28-6
6. St. Patrick-St. Vincent (Vallejo) 23-2
7. La Mirada 19-14
8. Bishop O’Dowd (Oakland) 18-6
9. Vanden (Fairfield) 21-12
10. Mt. Whitney (Visalia) 30-3*
Bubble: Bakersfield Christian 22-9, Birmingham (Lake Balboa) 18-8, Central (Fresno) 19-11,Edison (Huntington Beach) 27-5, King/Drew (Los Angeles) 20-11*, San Juan Hills (SJ Capistrano) 27-5, San Ramon Valley (Danville) 18-9, St. Francis (Mountain View) 16-12.
Notes: It was a toss-up between NorCal No. 1 seed Elk Grove & SoCal No. 1 Foothill, but we like Elk Grove just a bit more with one win against Open team Sheldon. Both won on Tuesday. In Elk Grove’s 57-50 victory vs Clovis East, which was the school’s first regional playoff game since 1995, DaJon Lott Jr. and Ameere Britton both scored 16 points. We were planning to rank Rancho Cucamonga ahead of Mt. Whitney prior to those two playing Tuesday in Visalia so the 13 seed beating the 4 was expected. The Cougars were the third-place team in the Baseline League (same one as Damien in D1) and looked way too low in the seedings. Mt. Whitney stayed at No. 10 because the Pioneers have a win over Bakersfield Christian. Erick Chaney’s unbelievable buzzer beater vs St Paul (Santa Fe Springs) on Tuesday put the Eagles at home on Thursday against Rancho Cucamonga.
DIVISION III
1. Rancho Verde (Moreno Valley) 21-7
2. Oakland 26-3
3. Pleasant Valley (Chico) 28-3
4. Viewpoint (Calabasas) 19-6
5. Venice 18-9
6. Whitney (Rocklin) 23-8
7. Bishop Diego (Santa Barbara) 24-7
8. Marin Catholic (Kentfield) 23-9
9. Lincoln (San Francisco) 21-3
10. Mt. Carmel (San Diego) 24-9
Bubble: Bullard (Fresno) 19-12, Lynbrook (San Jose) 21-7, Narbonne (Harbor City) 17-10, Oak Hills (Hesperia) 23-8*, Palisades (Pacific Palisades) 12-9.
Highlights: After losing in its CIFSS section final by one point, SoCal top seed Rancho Verde was itching to get back to it on Tuesday and topped Grant of Van Nuys, 62-50. We have Oakland ranked higher than Pleasant Valley in the north (just a flip of those top two seeds) due to a recent win over D1 Oakland Tech. Both teams won in their games on Tuesday. The biggest upset in the first round on Tuesday was SoCal No. 2 Oak Hills of Hesperia falling to Narbonne of Harbor City. The L.A. City Section also flexed its muscles with a win by El Camino Real of Woodland Hills (12-14) over SoCal No. 4 seed San Diego High.
DIVISION IV
1. Scripps Ranch (San Diego) 22-11
2. Liberty Ranch (Galt) 27-5
3. Enterprise (Redding) 20-8
4. Golden Valley (Bakersfield) 22-8
5. Carlmont (Belmont) 16-8
6. Justin-Siena (Napa) 19-11
7. Dos Pueblos (Goleta) 23-10*
8. Valley Torah (Valley Village) 28-3
9. University Prep (Redding) 21-9
10. Westchester (Los Angeles) 16-12*
Bubble: Los Angeles CES (Los Angeles) 19-13, Lowell (San Francisco) 22-7, Millikan (Long Beach) 15-18**, Sunny Hills (Fullerton) 25-8, Urban (San Francisco) 19-11.
Highlights: The upset of the night on the boys side on Tuesday was SoCal No. 1 seed Westchester falling to No. 16 Valley Torah. Given Westchester’s pedigree in D1 and winning state titles under former head coach Ed Azzam only added to the shock value. We ranked Valley Torah behind Dos Pueblos, which is the team it lost to in the CIFSS playoffs. Dos Pueblos lost in its first-round game to No. 2 seed Scripps Ranch, which is the team we also now have at No. 1.
DIVISION V
1. Cloverdale 25-2
2. Head-Royce (Oakland) 21-5
3. Denair 25-4**
4. Priory (Los Altos Hills) 17-11
5. Stuart Hall (San Francisco) 18-12
6. Edgewood (West Covina) 25-6
7. Fontana 26-5
8. Harbor Teachers (Wilmington) 18-0
9. Garces (Bakersfield) 13-19
10. Villanova Prep (Ojai) 22-8
Bubble: Bradshaw Christian (Sacramento) 13-19,Chaffey (Ontario) 21-12, La Quinta (Westminster) 20-11, Ripon Christian 21-8, Rosamond 25-2**.
Notes: The NorCal side of this bracket features five teams all with significant computer rankings edges over the SoCal teams. It’s more than 100 places for four of them and 66 for the fifth. NorCal No. 1 seed Cloverdale had a bye on Tuesday. SoCal No. 1 seed Harbor Teachers won and remains the only unbeaten team in the state. Rosamond was sitting at 25-0 until it lost to Garces in the Central Section finals. The Roadrunners then lost again on Tuesday to La Quinta of Westminster.
*Indicates season complete
**Indicates forfeits part of record
*** Indicates season complete & forfeits
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
