Playoff Openers Feature Glendale, Moorpark Men

The Glendale and Moorpark men’s basketball teams will begin play tonight in the 26-team Southern California regional junior college playoffs.

Glendale (20-11), seeded 19th, will travel to 14th-seeded Golden West (20-11). Moorpark (16-14), seeded 22nd, will play at 11th-seeded Compton (20-10). Both games are at 7:30.

Glendale and Moorpark are two of six teams from the Western State Conference, including top-ranked Santa Monica, taking part in the tournament. The state tournament will be held March 9-11 at the University of Santa Clara.

Glendale Coach Brian Beauchemin has a team in the playoffs for the 10th time in 11 seasons. The Vaqueros have four starters averaging more than 10 points a game.

“We had two goals at the beginning of the season--to make the playoffs and to win 20 games,” Beauchemin said. “We’ve done that with four freshmen starting. I think they realized that they can play.”

Moorpark ended its regular season with a four-game losing streak, including a double-overtime loss to Ventura last Saturday. The Raiders should be bolstered by the return of guard Bruce Watson, the team’s leading scorer (16 points a game), who had 17 against Ventura after missing the previous two games because of an injured finger.

“We were fortunate to get in considering our last four games,” Moorpark Coach Al Nordquist said. “But we played a lot of good teams in the preseason and I think people realized that.”