Here’s one place to check for the statewide angle for each of the CIF’s divisional girls basketball brackets from Division 1 to Division 5.
DIVISION I
Top seed in the north Sacramento (25-7) had a bye. Top seed in the south Cathedral Catholic of San Diego (26-6) topped El Camino Real of Woodland Hills 66-47. The top ranked in the south according to the Cal-Hi Sports rankings, Rosary of Fullerton (23-8) won its first-round regional game 70-31 against Narbonne of Harbor City.
Upset Alert: State Top 20 team Cardinal Newman of Santa Rosa was stunned by St. Francis of Mountain View 64-62. The Lancers (16-9) had big upsets in the first two rounds of NorCals last season over Bear Creek of Stockton and St. Joseph Notre Dame of Alameda. They will be playing at Bear Creek next on Thursday.
Upset Alert: Chaminade of West Hills and our SoCal Girls Player of the Week, Alexis Whitfield, not only lost to Long Beach Poly but lost 50-30. Here’s why it was a shocker: The Jackrabbits lost in the CIF Southern Section D1 semifinals 54-42 to M.L. King of Riverside and then King lost to Chaminade 52-49 in the final. So now Poly wins by 20 over Chaminade? Yes, it did.
Thursday’s Most Intriguing Game: Miramonte of Orinda (28-3) vs. Bishop O’Dowd (21-9) at Laney College. This is a rematch of the NCS D2 final that O’Dowd won last Saturday 64-59. Both teams are in this week’s State Top 20 and we didn’t yet move the Dragons ahead of the Mats due to overall season performances. Miramonte won on Tuesday vs. St. Ignatius of San Francisco while O’Dowd rolled past Presentation of San Jose.
Mia Mastrov and teammates from Miramonte will be looking for an avenging win on Thursday. Photo: Bev Sopak.
DIVISION 2
Top seed in the north Menlo School of Atherton (22-5) downed Bradshaw Christian of Sacramento 66-56. Top seed in the south Mark Keppel of Alhambra (25-6) had a bye. Our top-ranked in the north, Clovis (22-10), won in its first-round matchup 49-44 over Elk Grove.
Upset Alert: Both of the L.A. City Section Open Division consolation round teams won over higher-seeded opponents, but we’ll go with the No. 13 seed Legacy of South Gate (22-9) beating No. 4 Orange Lutheran 40-28. Legacy will now take on No. 12 seed Hamilton, which it lost to 73-60 in that consolation round of the L.A. City Open playoffs. The Yankees (24-6) won their game in overtime 71-61 over Oxford Academy of Cypress, which was 29-4 coming into the night.
Thursday’s Most Intriguing Game: We’ll go back to Clovis because the Cougars should get a huge test from Cosumnes Oaks of Elk Grove (24-7). The Wolf Pack could have been seeded higher than even Menlo in the north based on some of its wins and recent performances and now these two will be facing each other probably earlier than they should have.
DIVISION 3
Top seed in the north Christian Brothers of Sacramento (21-10) got shocked by Union Mine of El Dorado 54-47. Top seed in the south McFarland (28-5) knocked off Oxnard 68-56. Our top-ranked team in the north and for the division, Oakland High (26-5), smashed Wilcox of Santa Clara in its regional opener 73-38.
Upset Alert: To the CIF seedings, they weren’t upsets but we thought both West Campus of Sacramento (state champions in D4 two years ago and last season in D3) and Brentwood of Los Angeles (same league as Open Division top teams Windward and Sierra Canyon) had a chance to go far. They’re now both done. West Campus lost at Seaside 63-58 while Brentwood well at Palisades of Pacific Palisades 59-55.
Thursday’s Most Intriguing Game: We’ll go back to Union Mine. The Diamondbacks (21-8) have a great one-two punch with junior Alli McDonald and senior Carley Zaragoza and they only lost to West Campus in overtime in their Sac-Joaquin Section playoff game. It really wasn’t that great of an upset for them to beat Christian Brothers. They have to travel a lot further Thursday to face Aragon of San Mateo. The Dons (18-11) just came back from winning 47-44 at Eureka.
DIVISION 4
Top seed in the north Silver Creek of San Jose (23-4) defeated Lincoln of San Francisco 67-40. Top seed in the south Northview of Covina (28-5) had a bye. Our top-ranked team in the north (which is only seeded sixth), Piedmont (20-10), won its first-round game 60-45 over a Pleasant Valley of Chico squad that won the NorCal D2 title last season.
Upset Alert: According to the CIF seeds, it was an upset that No. 12 Linfield Christian got past No. 5 Grossmont of La Mesa 63-53. The Lions are a team that was 24-3 entering the game, however, so it’s not that much of a surprise.
Thursday’s Most Intriguing Game: Santa Fe of Santa Fe Springs (23-8) at Northview. These two schools are close to each other in the San Gabriel Valley. While the top-ranked Vikings had a bye, the Chiefs advanced by winning an 8-9 game by score of 48-46 over Maranatha of Pasadena.
DIVISION 5
Top seed in the north St. Bernard’s of Eureka (23-6*) advanced via forfeit when school officials at Western Sierra Collegiate Academy of Rocklin decided against making such a long trip in bad weather. Top seed in the south Madison of San Diego (28-3) defeated Saddleback of Santa Ana 58-20. The team we would have seeded first in the north and have one spot higher than St. Bernard’s, Caruthers, won its game on Tuesday 60-35 over Woodland Christian. The Blue Raiders improved to 28-4.
Upset Alert: It wasn’t an upset by the seeds, but we thought El Dorado of Placerville might do some damage in D5. The Cougars went up to Gridley, though, and were beaten 53-34. Gridley (21-9) will now play at No. 2 seed Willows so the Northern Section is guaranteed of a team in the regional semis.
Thursday’s Most Intriguing Game: Mariposa County of Mariposa (26-2) at Caruthers. As mentioned earlier, Caruthers looks like one of the best teams in this division. In this game, though, Mariposa County is coming in at 26-2 after a win on Tuesday against West Valley of Cottonwood (54-48). A 26-2 vs. 28-4 is hard to beat.
