Prep Basketball Pairings : Mater Dei, Simi Awarded Top Seedings

No. 1 seedings have been awarded to Santa Ana Mater Dei, Simi Valley, Rolling Hills, Oxnard Santa Clara, Whittier Christian and Hesperia Christian for the Southern Section boys’ basketball playoffs, which open with wild-card games Wednesday and conclude with title games March 6 and 7.

Mater Dei (24-1), the second-ranked team in the state, begins defense of its 5-A title against Fountain Valley (12-10) at Rancho Santiago College Friday night. The other seeded teams are Long Beach Millikan (21-3), which will play Santa Fe Springs St. Paul, Huntington Beach Marina (21-4), which drew Loyola, and Huntington Beach Ocean View (17-6). This is the only division without wild-card games.

A capsule look at the other divisions, in order of the seeded teams, which will host the first round:

4-A--Claremont (10-11) at Simi Valley; Hacienda Height Los Altos (7-16) at Pasadena Muir (19-3); Crescenta Valley (16-9) or Inglewood (16-8) at Santa Barbara (20-2); Ventura (19-5) at Glendale (20-3).

3-A--Montebello (14-7) at Rolling Hills (22-3); the winner of the Saugus (16-9)-Newhall Hart (12-11) wild-card game at Anaheim Katella (23-2); Garden Grove Los Amigos (15-10) at Pomona Ganesha (20-4); La Habra Sonora (11-14) at Corona del Mar.

2-A--Covina Northview (12-12) at Oxnard Santa Clara (18-4); La Mirada (7-13) or Laguna Hills (13-11) at Pasadena Blair (19-5); El Centro Central (13-10) at Irvine Woodbridge (20-5); Alhambra Keppel (8-13) or Baldwin Park (8-11) at San Bernardino (20-5).

1-A--It’ll take some wild guesses to figure these out before Wednesday. Ventura St. Bonaventure (14-7) or Pasadena Poly (12-11) at Whittier Christian (23-1); Flintridge Prep (16-6) or Tehachapi (10-11) at Santa Monica Crossroads (18-5); Beaumont (16-7) or Ontario Christian (16-7) at Santa Ynez (19-2); Bel-Air Prep (15-7) or Oak Park (10-10) at Palos Verdes Chadwick (15-7).

Small Schools--Norwalk Pioneer Baptist (11-4) at Hesperia Christian (19-2); Lone Pine (13-8) at Big Pine (15-0); Coleville (10-7) at Silver Valley (17-4); Ojai Villanova Prep (15-5) or Northridge Highland Hall (8-9) at San Luis Obispo Mission Prep (16-4).

Soccer and girls’ basketball pairings will be announced today.