No. 1 Sierra Canyon avoids being a stunning upset victim in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Open Division playoffs, but previous No. 7 Alemany does not. Joining the Super 8 therefore is previous No. 9 Sheldon of Sacramento.
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(Through games of Saturday Feb. 18; Previous ranking in parentheses)
1. (1) Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth) 26-1
Guess the top seeds in the CIFSS Open Division didn’t all breeze into this week’s quarterfinals as No. 16 seed Heritage Christian of Northridge gave the top seeded Trailblazers all they could handle before falling, 99-93.
San Diego State-bound Adam Seiko has been one of those ultimate “glue” players for No. 1 Sierra Canyon the last three seasons. Photo: sierracanyonathletics.com.
2. (2) Chino Hills 28-1
Li’Angelo Ball scored 32 points in a 105-74 victory over JSerra of San Juan Capistrano that advanced the Huskies into a Tuesday matchup with Long Beach Poly at Cerritos College.
3. (3) Bishop Montgomery (Torrance) 24-2
After 83-66 victory over Oak Park, Bishop Montgomery has a big quarterfinal test on the road versus No. 5 seed and state No. 9 Santa Margarita in the CIFSS Open Division.
4. (4) Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 29-1
The Monarchs have only lost to No. 2 Chino Hills and before they can look forward to a rematch, they must focus on a Roosevelt team that has two of the best players in the CIF Southern Section in Matt Mitchell and Jemarl Baker.
5. (5) Woodcreek (Roseville) 25-2
We don’t change rankings to match seedings and will continue to have the Timberwolves ahead of Sacramento Sheldon even though the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section has it seeded the other way around.
6. (6) Birmingham (Lake Balboa) 24-3
The Patriots’ playoff opener versus L.A. Dorsey was postponed until Tuesday because of the bad weather that hit Southern California last Friday.
7. (8) Roosevelt (Corona) 19-6
Coach Steve Singleton’s team moves up one spot in the rankings after previous No. 7 Alemany was shocked by unranked Long Beach Poly. Roosevelt won its CIFSS Open Division playoff game 81-70 over Redondo Union.
8. (9) Sheldon (Sacramento) 25-2
The Huskies move up one spot after closing out the regular season with a 68-50 win over Elk Grove and as expected was given the top seed in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D1 playoffs over Woodcreek of Roseville, which we have had higher in our rankings.
