Girls basketball: LB Poly, Redondo achieve favored status
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Southern Section champions Long Beach Poly and Redondo are the two of the three Southland teams that have been seeded No. 1 in the Southern California Regionals for the state girls’ basketball playoffs that begin Monday. Muir, a semifinalist, is the other top-seeded team.
Here are the pairings.
The 16-team Division I regional tournament has teams playing Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday to determine who advances to the state finals the following weekend in Sacramento.
The top four seeded teams in Division I are Poly (26-2), Fresno Clovis West (27-2), Narbonne (28-4) and Millikan (27-4). Division II-AA champion Miller (27-3) is No. 5, and Division II-A champion Cajon is No. 6.
The section received eight berths, and six were filled automatically based on teams’ playoff performance. In other words, they reached the section finals in one of the 10 divisions.
Lynwood (22-6) and San Clemente (25-5) received the two available playoff berths as Ventura (27-3) and five other teams were passed over. Ventura and Lynwood were both semifinalists from the Southern Section’s marquee Division I-AA, and San Clemente was a semifinalist in the second-rung Division I-A.
The best game of the first round likely is No. 10 Lynwood at No. 7 Chatsworth (24-6). They played earlier this season and Lynwood won, 60-55, at the Ayala tournament. However, the winner will have to play the following night in Fresno at Clovis West.
All other divisions include only eight teams and begin on Tuesday.
Division I-A champion Redondo (27-3) is followed in the state Division II seeding order by Ayala (27-5), Colony (27-2) and San Diego Mt. Carmel (20-11).
Redondo could face Bay League rival Mira Costa (25-6) for the fourth time this season -- and the second time in a week -- if both win first-round games. Redondo beat Mira Costa for the Division I-A title, 56-42.
Redondo plays host to Fresno Edison, and No. 5 Mira Costa plays at Mt. Carmel in San Diego.
Despite being the No. 2 team, Ayala must play at No. 7 Bakersfield Centennial, the Central Section champion.
In Division III, Muir (26-2) was the top-seeded team, followed by Hanford (25-4), San Diego Cathedral Catholic (26-3) and Laguna Hills (23-6). Coincidentally, Muir was not an automatic qualifier and received one of two available at-large berths.
-- Martin Henderson