El Camino Will Meet North’s Top Seed in Playoffs

El Camino College’s spectacular road show will play at UC Irvine this afternoon when the state’s Final Eight Junior College Basketball Tournament gets under way.

The road has been kind to the Warriors, who have a three-game playoff winning streak against higher-ranked teams.

Today at 5 p.m., El Camino, seeded fourth in the South, will meet West Valley of Saratoga, the North’s top seed, at the Bren Event Center on the Irvine campus.

West Valley is a good shooting team that runs well and plays a tough zone defense. The Vikings won the Golden Gate Conference title and hold an impressive 29-2 record. They are led by all-conference guard Craig Holt, who signed with Loyola Marymount University earlier this season, and 6-foot-7 forward Brian Killian, a solid outside shooter.

El Camino Coach Ron McClurkin said his team is ready to face the Vikings, who defeated Sacramento and Columbia en route to this weekend’s tournament.

After all, the Warriors had to overcome long odds just to get to the final eight. El Camino (23-10) was seeded 23rd in the South Regional playoffs before upsetting No. 10 Santa Monica, No. 7 L.A. City College and finally No. 2 Cypress on Saturday.

“Everyone is ready to go,” McClurkin said Tuesday. “We had a great practice yesterday, and we’re very hyped up. No one has let down. We’re still very intense.”

That’s been the case with El Camino’s offense through the playoffs. At least four players have scored in double figures in every game. Sophomore Larry Lockley leads the team with an 18.6-point average in the playoffs. The all-conference guard scored 23 points in El Camino’s 80-71 win over Cypress and 21 against Santa Monica.

Sophomore forwards David Keeter and Steve Leary have each averaged 14 points a game in the playoffs. Both had their best post-season performances against L.A. City. Keeter (6-5, 185 pounds) had 23 points, and Leary ((6-8, 200) had 17.

“They’ve capped off the season with a trip to Irvine,” McClurkin said of his players, “and now they want to cap off the trip to Irvine with a championship.”

If the Warriors get past West Valley, they’ll face the winner of tonight’s Rancho Santiago-American River game Friday at 8 p.m. Rancho (29-3) is the South’s second-seeded team, and American River (24-12) is seeded third in the North.