Southern Section Girls’ Basketball Playoff Preview : A Few Games May Even Be Close

Tonight’s first round of the CIF Southern Section girls’ basketball playoffs presents an interesting concept to the sport.

Close games.

Oh sure, there will be the usual blowouts so common during the regular season.

There’s Muir High School (25-0), No. 1 in the 4-A division and the nation, playing Bishop Montgomery (4-16).

And there’s Brea-Olinda (22-3), top-seeded in the 3-A, playing John W. North (10-13). But there are some potential good games.

In Orange County those games include, Tustin (14-8) at El Toro (19-6) and Magnolia (14-9) at Esperanza (18-5) in the 3-A and Fullerton (18-5) at Bolsa Grande (14-11) in the 2-A.

Here’s a quick look at what may be the best and worst tonight:

THE BEST Los Alamitos (17-7) at Corona del Mar (16-8)--The Griffins could have shared the Empire League championship after defeating eventual champion Esperanza, 35-34, in overtime. But, Los Alamitos followed the big win with two losses in its last two games to El Dorado and Katella.

“I think we let down after we beat Esperanza,” said Robin Farrington, Griffin coach. “Those last two games we were just going through the motions. I would have been worried, but we’ve had a good week of practice so I’m looking forward to this game.”

These teams played earlier this season in the Marina-Edison Tournament. Los Alamitos won, 36-30, but shot a horrendous 16 for 66 (24%). Not much of a game to scout by.

The Sea Kings, the Sea View League’s No. 1 entry, are led by 6-foot 1-inch senior center Michelle Willard. She is averaging 15 points a game and leads the Southern Section in rebounding, averaging 19.6 a game.

THE WORST Irvine (13-10) at Foothill (24-1)--Bill George, in his second season at Irvine has coached the Vaqueros to their second-best record in school history.

Irvine, the No. 3 entry from the South Coast League, enters the playoffs for the second time tonight and plays, who else, the 3-A’s second-seeded team, Foothill.

The Knights are the defending 3-A champion, and have won their last 23 games.

Coach Sheila Adams returned three starters from last season’s team, including center Chris McFerson, who leads the teams in points (13) and rebounds (10) per game.

Last season the Vaqueros were 10-12 and drew No. 1 seed Brea-Olinda.

“I thought last year we deserved to draw the No. 1 seed,” George said. “We weren’t very good. But I thought we had a chance at getting past the first round this season. This team has got a lot of talent.”

So what do you tell your team?

“I’ve been giving them a lot of those old cliches,” George said. “You know, ‘On any night, one team can beat another.’ You never know. Stranger things have happened.

“I bet Sheila is telling her team the same old cliches, like ‘You have to take one game at a time.’ ”

And Adams?

“I’m just telling my team to take one game at a time,” she said.

In other first round games:

4-A--Santa Barbara at Mater Dei, Pasadena at Fountain Valley, Santa Monica at Edison and Ocean View at Hawthorne.

3-A--Alemany at Woodbridge, Tustin at El Toro, Costa Mesa at Mission Viejo, Savanna at Riverside Poly and Katella at Antelope Valley.

2-A--Edgewood at La Quinta.

1-A--Brethren at Rosary and Regina Caeli at Connelly.