Crenshaw Seeded No. 2 in Regional

The Crenshaw High boys’ basketball team must be wondering how many state titles it will have to win before the CIF awards the Cougars a No. 1 seeding.

For the fifth consecutive season, Santa Ana Mater Dei was awarded the No. 1 seeding and Crenshaw was placed No. 2 in the CIF Southern Regional boys’ basketball pairings announced Sunday.

Crenshaw, which defeated Westchester, 87-70, in Friday’s City Section 4-A final, won its seventh Division I state title last year, 91-81, over Concord De La Salle. The Cougars have won three state titles in four years.

Crenshaw, which has won five consecutive City titles and 16 overall since 1971, has defeated Mater Dei in three of the last four Regional finals.

Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight said that the selection committee must not take past performance into consideration when making the seedings.

“Every year it’s a different group of players and it’s evaluated differently every year,” McKnight said.

The Monarchs (29-2), who enter the Southern Regional tournament with a 20-game winning streak, will play host to Fontana A.B. Miller (22-8) in a first-round game at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at UC Irvine’s Bren Center.

Crenshaw (23-3), which has won 12 consecutive games since losing to Compton Dominguez in January, will play host to Etiwanda (24-6) in the first round at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

The Ventura Buena girls (26-3) are top-seeded in Division I and will play host to Lynwood (19-11) in a first-round game at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Boys’ and girls’ semifinals in all five divisions will be played Thursday. The Southern Regional finals for Divisions I and II boys and I, II and IV girls are scheduled for Saturday at the Pond of Anaheim.

Division III, IV and V boys’ and III and V girls’ finals are scheduled for Saturday at Cal State Fullerton.

Southern Regional winners will play their Northern Regional counterparts in the state finals March 21-22 at the Pond.