Three Area Teams Seeded No. 1 in Girls’ Basketball

Three girls’ basketball teams in the region were seeded No. 1 in their respective divisions when the Southern Section playoff pairings were announced Monday.

Crescenta Valley (Division I-AA), Alemany (III-AA) and Harvard-Westlake (III-A) received top rankings and were among 37 teams from the region to qualify for the playoffs.

Other seeded teams included Buena (No. 2 in I-A), Moorpark (No. 2 in II-A), Nordhoff (No. 4 in III-A), Paraclete (No. 3 in IV-AA), Louisville (No. 4 in IV-AA), Bell-Jeff (No. 4 in IV-A), Lancaster Bethel Christian (No. 2 in V-A) and Cornerstone Christian (V-A).

First-round games in divisions II-A and IV-AA and all wild-card games will be played Thursday. First-round games in the other eight divisions will be played Saturday.

Two schools were noteworthy by their absence from the playoffs.

Defending Division I-AA champion Oxnard (7-17) finished fifth in the Channel League and did not meet Southern Section criteria for playoff inclusion.

Newbury Park tied Simi Valley for fourth place in the Marmonte League but a tie-breaker gave Simi Valley the league’s final playoff spot.

The Panthers were did not receive an at-large berth despite competing in Division II-A, where top-seeded Bishop Amat has a first-round bye.

One team that didn’t figure to make the playoffs was Canyon. The Cowboys (12-14) finished fourth in the Foothill League and Coach Paul Broneer collected his players’ uniforms last week.

But Canyon was awarded an at-large berth and will travel to Buena (23-2) for a first-round game Saturday.

Buena, ranked No. 1 in the region by The Times, is seeking its third consecutive section title.

Highland and Valencia are making their first postseason appearances.

Valencia (18-5) travels to Marmonte League co-champion Thousand Oaks (17-7) in an attractive Division I-A opener Saturday.

Highland (18-5) hosts Santa Monica on Thursday in a Division I-AA wild-card game, with the winner playing at Crescenta Valley.