Girls’ basketball playoffs should be thrilling

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I ran out of octane after I blogged a boys’ basketball bracket breakdown last night, so I made sure to dedicate my morning and early afternoon to the girls. Here’s some observations:

Local duel -- It looks as if I could be spending my Saturday night out in Ventura now that I know there’s going to be a completely local Division I-AA first-round matchup between the Cougars and Thousand Oaks. Still, I have a pretty good feeling this one’s going to be a Ventura blowout and that’s the only reason why I might not be in the Ventura HS stands this weekend. And it seems some people are milking this one for more than its worth. If the Lancers can keep this one interesting, though, I have no problem eating (or is it drinking?) my electronic ink.

Here’s a more competitive game -- Unless I get a ton of comments begging me to go see Ventura kick some butt, I might just get off the 101 early and see Newbury Park and Dos Pueblos play what should be a pretty competitive Division I-AA game. If the Chargers weren’t in the Ventura and Buena-dominated Channel League, they probably would have won a league title. And the Panthers are one of the most underrated teams around -- just ask Royal.

An even sooner highway exit -- Forget the five extra miles it’ll take for me to go out to Newbury Park -- I can see a doozy of a Division II-AA first rounder in Westlake Village between Oaks Christian and Chaminade. The Eagles pretty much landed where I thought they would in the Mission League, but the Lions’ roar wasn’t as mighty as I thought it would be after I was partially blinded by their impressive nonleague performance. Still, the showdown between Oaks Christian’s Chelsea Carlisle and Katie Brooks and Chaminade’s Kim Capicotto and Erin Dautremont should be worth cost of a basketball booster hand stamp.

Luck of the draw -- Normally, an at-large berth means a competitive wild-card game followed by a Freddy Kruger-like opponent in the first round. Fortunately for Valencia, its first two Division I-A games are like a Strawberry Shortcake hopscotch game. OK, maybe it’s not that easy, but I’d be shocked if the Vikings didn’t make it to the quarterfinals. Chelsey Hastigan, Starla Wright and the rest of the Vikings shouldn’t have any problems beating Crescenta Valley in the wild-card game and they’ve already beaten their first-round opponent, Mission Viejo, this season.

Knightly love -- It’s good to see St. Joesph got some love from the bracket builders even though it’s stuck all the way up there in the town best known for Michael Jackson’s limo-top moonwalking. The Knights should have a pretty easy path until a possible showdown with Knight (the ones in Palmdale) in the semifinals. I’ll be rooting to see the Reizebos sisters square off against Gelenda Loving & Co. in a few games.

They’ve got a shot -- Who’s got the easiest path to a divisional title? No, it’s not Ventura, St. Joseph or Notre Dame -- it’s Bell-Jeff. Straight off their 21-5 regular-season campaign which culminated in a share of the Santa Cruz League title, the Guards were rewarded with the No. 2 seed in the Division IV-AA playoffs. And the path to the title game looks doable even though there’s a good chance they’ll meet up with a talented St. Mary’s Academy squad in the finals.

If you missed Sunday afternoon’s blog-a-thon by stats guru Eric Maddy, you can see the brackets here, or download them, here.

Also, it’s good to see the King of Pop has put his legal woes behind him and is contributing toward another successful rehabilitation of Filipino prison inmates:

-- Austin Knoblauch

-- Image from www.toxicshock.tv