NEW Bay Area Basketball Rankings

Look for Natalie Romeo and girls team from Carondelet of Concord and head coach Tim Kennedy and boys team from Archbishop Mitty of San Jose to be in this year’s Northern California Open Division playoffs. Photos: Phillip Walton/SportStars & Willie Eashman.

Section semifinalists that break into this week’s Top 20 are the St. Vincent-St. Patrick boys, Richmond Salesian boys and Justin-Siena girls. The O’Dowd girls also stay right where they were even though season is over. Check this post for the new Cal-Hi Sports Bay Area Top 20 rankings in both boys and girls basketball. We produce these rankings in support of the Cal-Hi Sports Bay Area TV show, which airs live on KUSI Channel 20 in San Francisco on Sunday nights.

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Boys: Bruins, Pride return

As the CIF North Coast Section and CIF Central Coast Section playoffs enter the semifinal stage early this week with champions crowned by next weekend, this week’s Cal-Hi Sports Bay Area Top 20 rankings on the boys side didn’t see too many changes.

There were actually no Bay Area Top 20 teams that lost to unranked teams, although not surprisingly previous No. 17 Archbishop Riordan topped previous No. 12 Burlingame in a CCS Open Division quarterfinal.

Watch highlights of the Bay Area’s best teams every Sunday at 6 p.m. on KOFY, Channel 20, San Francisco.

Riordan’s win also set up another All-West Catholic Athletic League pair of CCS Open Division semifinals with the Crusaders matched up against top-seed Archbishop Mitty while San Mateo Serra and Sacred Heart Cathedral meet in the other semi. In the two years of the CCS Open Division in boys basketball, no non-WCAL team has won in the first round.

Both Leigh of San Jose and Half Moon Bay were two of the other CCS Open Division first-round losers from last Friday. While it was considered to keep both in the Bay Area Top 20, both dropped out in favor of St. Patrick-St. Vincent of Vallejo and Salesian of Richmond, who have played stronger schedules and have more quality wins.

Here are this week’s complete Bay Area Top 20 for boys (Compiled by Mark Tennis; previous ranking in parentheses; after games of Saturday, March 1):

1. (1) Bishop O’Dowd (Oakland) 24-4

2. (2) Monte Vista (Danville) 26-1

3. (3) St. Joseph Notre Dame (Alameda) 24-5

4. (4) Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 24-4

5. (5) El Cerrito 26-3

6. (6) San Ramon Valley (Danville) 23-4

7. (7) Newark Memorial (Newark) 21-7

8. (8) Serra (San Mateo) 20-7

9. (9) De La Salle (Concord) 19-7

10. (10) Campolindo (Moraga) 22-6

11. (11) St. Ignatius (San Francisco) 20-6

12. (14) Freedom (Oakley) 23-5

13. (15) Montgomery (Santa Rosa) 25-5

14. (16) Sacred Heart Cathedral (San Francisco) 18-10

15. (17) Archbishop Riordan (San Francisco) 17-9

16. (18) Moreau Catholic (Hayward) 22-6

17. (13) Pittsburg 22-6

18. (12) Burlingame 23-4

19. (NR) St. Patrick-St. Vincent (Vallejo) 23-8

20. (NR) Salesian (Richmond) 19-13

Dropped Out: No. 19 Leigh (San Jose); No. 20 Half Moon Bay.

Teams On The Bubble: Acalanes (Lafayette) 17-11; Aptos 22-5; Branson (Ross) 23-5; Concord 21-7; Dougherty Valley (San Ramon) 20-8; Fortuna 26-2; Half Moon Bay 23-4; Heritage (Brentwood) 15-13; Leigh (San Jose) 23-3; Menlo-Atherton (Atherton) 17-8; Pinole Valley (Pinole) 16-14; San Benito (Hollister) 21-4; San Leandro 16-12; Santa Cruz 20-8; St. Francis (Mountain View) 15-12.

Girls: CCS Open Division creates tough calls

Just like in the CIF Southern Section Open Division for state rankings consideration, the question of how far to drop ranked teams that lost in the CIF Central Coast Section Open Division came into play this week for the Cal-Hi Sports Bay Area Top 20 rankings.

The losing teams continue to play at least one more game in the consolation bracket and then get to return to their respective divisions for the Northern California regional playoffs. Because of that, none of those teams dropped out, and in fact could move up next week based on the results of the NCS teams ranked above them this week.

Watch highlights of the Bay Area’s best teams every Sunday at 6 p.m. on KOFY, Channel 20, San Francisco.

The only newcomer is Justin-Siena of Napa. The No. 2 team from the Redwood Empire pinned a 66-56 loss on host and previous No. 20 Piedmont. The Marin County Athletic League regular season and playoff champions have no real bad losses.

No. 3 St. Mary’s is next for Justin-Siena so as previously stated they will probably fall back behind the CCS Open Division teams.

In an email, Pinewood head coach Doc Scheppler bemoaned the loss of six spots last week after a setback to an Eastside College Prep team his girls had already beaten twice. The drop also landed them behind a Scotts Valley team they own a win over.

The doctor and his girls didn’t get all the spots back, but after a 54-31 shellacking of Presentation they do get back four, and go back in front of Scotts Valley, as well as the Mitty team that just lost to Scotts Valley 67-64.

Here is this week’s Bay Area Top 20 (Compiled by Harold Abend; previous ranking in parentheses; after games of Saturday, March 1):
(*Forfeits not included)

1. (1) Salesian (Richmond) 26-5

2. (2) Bishop O’Dowd (Oakland) 23-4**

3. (3) St. Mary’s (Berkeley) 24-7

4. (4) Carondelet (Concord) 25-3

5. (5) Miramonte (Orinda) 26-1

6. (6) Sacred Heart Cathedral (San Francisco) 20-6

7. (7) St. Ignatius (San Francisco) 24-4

8. (9) Berkeley 20-7

9. (10) Monte Vista (Danville) 24-3

10. (11) Deer Valley (Antioch) 23-5

11. (15) Pinewood (Los Altos Hills) 25-2

12. (12) Scotts Valley 24-3

13. (8) Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 16-11

14. (14) Santa Rosa 27-3

15. (NR) Justin-Siena (Napa) 23-5

16. (16) Eastside College Prep (East Palo Alto) 18-9

17. (17) Wilcox (Santa Clara) 21-4

18. (18) Presentation (San Jose) 16-11

19. (19) St. Francis (Mountain View) 14-11

20. (13) Cardinal Newman (Santa Rosa) 22-6

Dropped Out: Previous No. 20 Piedmont.

Teams On the Bubble: Campolindo (Moraga) 17-10, Clayton Valley (Concord) 22-6, Dublin 18-9, Encinal (Alameda) 20-6, Foothill (Pleasanton) 19-9, James Logan (Union City) 19-9, Los Gatos 17-9, Lowell (San Francisco), 20-5, Lynbrook (San Jose) 17-8, North Salinas (Salinas) 23-2, Piedmont 19-9, Pittsburg 19-9, Saratoga 21-4, Skyline (Oakland) 19-7, Valley Christian (Dublin) 26-3, Valley Christian (San Jose) 13-13, Westmoor (Daly City) 22-6.

Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @CalHiSports

Harold Abend is the associate editor of CalHiSports.com and the vice president of the California Prep Sportswriters Association. He can be reached at marketingharoldabend@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @HaroldAbend