Morse Boys Are Top Seed in 3-A Playoffs

The top-ranked Morse High boys’ basketball team is the top seed in the 3-A division as the basketball playoff pairings for boys and girls were announced Saturday by San Diego Section Commissioner Kendall Webb.

Morse (19-2) is one of four City Eastern League schools selected to participate when the playoffs begin throughout the county beginning Tuesday. The biggest surprise was the selection of Patrick Henry (11-11), which tied for fourth in its league.

Patrick Henry was selected because the Mesa League failed to establish its second-place team by the time of the seeding meeting Saturday. Hilltop defeated Bonita Vista, 67-58, Saturday night for second place and the playoff spot.

“I’m going to propose a rule,” Webb said, “that states if a league has not determined its No. 1 and 2 teams prior to the seeding meeting, they will not receive an at-large entry. . . . It just really complicated the deliberations of the committee. We were tremendously handicapped because we didn’t know what we were talking about (in terms of team comparisons).”

Another problem occurred in the boys’ 2-A division, where fourth-ranked Oceanside (17-7)--the Avocado League co-champion that lost a coin flip to El Camino (21-3) for the league’s top spot--is seeded sixth. Oceanside plays host to University City in the first round Tuesday with the winner meeting sixth-ranked Lincoln on Friday. El Camino, the county’s eighth-ranked team, is the top seed and on Saturday plays host to the winner of Wednesday’s Southwest-La Jolla game at La Jolla.

“We felt that Oceanside was the strongest non-No. 1 team,” Webb said. “We either had to seed them fifth or sixth.”

If seeded fifth, Oceanside would have been in the same bracket with El Camino, and the committee prefers to separate the top two teams in the brackets.

The top-seeded teams in the girls’ divisions are undefeated Point Loma in the 3-A and La Jolla in the 2-A.

Playoff Pairings In boys’ 3-A: Patrick Henry at San Dieguito, Wednesday, winner at Morse, Saturday; Mount Miguel at Torrey Pines, Tuesday, winner at Sweetwater Friday; Bonita Vista at Madison, Wednesday, winner at Monte Vista Saturday; Valhalla at Mira Mesa, Tuesday, winner at Mount Carmel, Friday.

In the boys’ 2-A: Southwest at La Jolla, Wednesday, winner at El Camino; San Marcos at St. Augustine, Tuesday, winner at Kearny, Friday; University City at Oceanside, Tuesday, winner at Lincoln, Friday; Christian at Clairemont, Wednesday, winner at Castle Park, Saturday.

In the girls’ 3-A: Grossmont at Fallbrook, Tuesday, winner at Point Loma, Friday; Mount Miguel at Mount Carmel, Wednesday, winner at Bonita Vista, Saturday; Monte Vista at Madison, Tuesday, winner at Santana, Friday; Chula Vista at Helix, Wednesday, winner at Vista, Saturday.

In the girls’ 2-A: Mission Bay at San Marcos, Wednesday, winner at La Jolla, Saturday; Castle Park at Ramona, Tuesday, winner at Lincoln, Friday; Coronado at Crawford, Wednesday, winner at Southwest, Saturday; Oceanside at San Diego, Tuesday, winner at San Pasqual, Friday.

All games are at 7:30 p.m. except for Friday’s doubleheader at Lincoln, which has the girls playing at 6 p.m. and the boys at 8 p.m.