19 Section Schools Advance in State Playoffs

Three San Diego Section champions are seeded No. 1 in their respective divisions and 19 section schools will participate in the Southern California regionals of the state boys’ and girls’ high school basketball tournament.

First-round games are at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Torrey Pines (31-3) of Division II and Lincoln (27-1) of Division III are the top-seeded teams in the boys’ tournament and Vista (26-3) is the top-seeded team in the girls’ Division II. Seven San Diego County teams will play host to first-round games.

Lincoln opens defense of its Southern California Regional Division III title by playing host to Morningside (21-5), which lost to Corona del Mar in the Southern Section 3-A semifinals. Torrey Pines, which has been ranked No. 1 in the county all season, plays host to Artesia (21-6), which lost to Dominguez in the Southern Section 4-A final. The Vista girls play host to Anaheim Canyon (22-5), which lost to Valencia in the Southern Section 4-AA final.

Point Loma (30-1), the county’s top-ranked girls team, will play host to Santa Barbara (21-8), the Southern Section 5-A runner-up. Point Loma, the San Diego Section Division I champion, is the second-seeded team.

University of San Diego High School (14-7) will play host to Palm Desert (23-3) in Division III. La Jolla Country Day, the fourth-seeded team in Division V, will play host to Pilgrim (20-3), the Southern Section Small Schools runner-up.

Christian (14-11), which won the section’s Division IV, will play host to Orange Lutheran (23-4), the Southern Section 2-A runner-up, in a boys’ game.

Teams that will play road games include Poway, the section’s Division I boys’ champion, which plays at top-seeded Crenshaw (21-2). Poway (23-4) is the only San Diego Section champion that will play on the road.

Complete pairings, page 19.