Granada Hills, Cleveland Vie for City’s No. 3 Seeding

Manual Arts and Crenshaw highs, as expected, were seeded first and second Thursday for the City Section basketball playoff.

The winner of the North Valley League title, which will be settled today when Granada Hills visits Cleveland, will be seeded No. 3.

The Granada Hills-Cleveland winner will open at home against Gardena, the fourth-place team from the Southern League. The runner-up will play host to Washington, the third-place team from the Southern League.

Taft, unless it defeats Kennedy today, will play at Crenshaw, ranked eighth in the state and the defending 4-A champion. With a win today against Taft, Kennedy--currently third in the North Valley--would play at Dorsey, second in the Southern League.

Schools finishing with the best overall record in league play will serve as the home teams for the first two rounds. The semifinal and championship rounds for boys’ and girls’ teams in the 4-A Division will be held at the Sports Arena. The semifinals are Feb. 23 and the finals are March 2.

The boys’ and girls’ 3-A Division semifinals will be held at a neutral site on Feb. 23. The finals are March 2 at the Sports Arena.

In the boys’ 3-A, second-seeded Grant will face the second-place team from the West Valley League. San Fernando and El Camino Real will play today at 4 p.m. to decide the West Valley champion. The winner will play host to Marshall, the Northwest League runner-up.

Reseda and North Hollywood, which will tie for the Mid-Valley title if both teams win today as expected, flipped a coin for the league’s top seeding Thursday and Reseda won. The Regents will play the second-place team from the Northeast League.

Birmingham, in the East Valley, opens against top-seeded Fremont, ranked fifth in the state.

In the girls’ 4-A Division, the West Valley League champion, either El Camino Real or Kennedy, will play host to Crenshaw. The second-place team will play Fremont or Jordan. Mid-Valley League champion Van Nuys was seeded No. 2 and will play host to San Pedro.