Palos Verdes Girls Get a Bye Into Semifinals; Opponent Drops Out

The Southern California regional high school basketball playoffs haven’t started, but results are already coming in.

The Palos Verdes girls, the Southern Section 3-A champions and top-seeded in Division II, were given a bye when their first-round opponent, Mt. Whitney of Visalia, dropped out Monday.

According to Ed Huston, Mt. Whitney’s athletic director, the Central Section school did not realize it would advance as a division runner-up from last Thursday’s sectional championship game. The school learned of the pairings Sunday and decided it did not have either the time or the desire to regroup and drive about four hours to play Palos Verdes.

So, the Sea Kings get a pass into the semifinals, where they will play the winner of tonight’s game between Los Altos of Hacienda Heights and Fallbrook of the San Diego Section.

A similar situation developed in girls’ Division IV, although it has no immediate effect on local teams. Christian of El Cajon decided against a trip to Chowchilla, meaning that the winner of tonight’s meeting between Coronado and second-seeded Valley Christian of Cerritos will meet Chowchilla in the semifinals.

That leaves 26 City and Southern Section schools with games tonight, including five top-seeded teams--Crenshaw of Division I, Banning of Division IV and North Hollywood Oakwood of Division V in the boys’ competition, and Inglewood Morningside of Division I and Trona of Division V in the girls’.

City 4-A champion Crenshaw (26-0) and Southern Section 2-A winner Banning (30-0) are the only undefeated boys’ teams left in the state and two of three overall. Wasco (25-0), a girls’ Division IV entrant from the Central Section, is the other.

The semifinals will be played Thursday and the finals Saturday. The winners there will meet the Northern California Regional champions for state titles March 19 at Oakland.