Eighth-Seeded Santa Ana Opens Playoffs at Home

Santa Ana, which turned a meandering season into a smashing success by winning its last nine games, was seeded eighth in the Southern California men’s basketball playoff pairings announced Monday.

The Dons (19-11) open at home against No. 25 Cerro Coso at 7 p.m. Saturday. Santa Ana is in the same part of the bracket as top-seeded Bakersfield (27-3).

The Santa Ana-Cerro Coso winner plays the winner of No. 9 Los Angeles Trade Tech (19-12) and No. 24 Los Angeles Harbor (14-16) in the second round March 4. The regional finals are March 7.

Santa Ana started the season with four losses and was 10-11, 2-3 in the Orange Empire Conference after a 15-point loss to Orange Coast on Jan. 21.

But the Dons won the next nine, led by sophomore forward Lohnnie Tape, who was the conference’s most valuable player. Tape said one of the reasons the team rallied was because it is the final season for Coach Dana Pagett, who is stepping down after 15 years. Pagett has a record of 321-164 and his teams won state titles in 1990 and 1991.

“It’s been great,” Pagett said. “What a wonderful thing. The guys really came together.”

Four other OEC teams--Riverside, Fullerton, Orange Coast and Irvine Valley--also made the playoffs. In Friday games: No. 12 Riverside (23-11) hosts No. 21 Southwestern (12-12), No. 14 Fullerton (21-9) plays No. 19 Palomar (20-12), No. 18 Orange Coast (18-12) is at No. 15 Santa Monica (24-6) and No. 20 Irvine Valley (19-12) is No. 13 Los Angeles Valley (22-9).

Cypress (15-16), Saddleback (11-19) and Golden West (6-25) failed to make the playoffs.

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In the women’s pairings: Orange Coast (23-9) and Fullerton (25-8), which tied for first in the Orange Empire Conference, got first-round byes.

In Friday’s games: Irvine Valley (22-7) was seeded ninth and hosts No. 24 Southwestern (11-15) and No. 22 Victor Valley (13-15) is at No. 11 Cypress (23-10).

The second round starts March 3 with No. 4 Orange Coast awaiting the winner of No. 13 Santa Monica (14-16) and No. 20 Alan Hancock (13-19). Fullerton, seeded seventh, plays March 4 against the winner of No. 10 Chaffey (23-9) and No. 23 Mt. San Antonio (12-16).

Fullerton was expected to be seeded higher than Orange Coast based on power rating, but a mistake was discovered over the weekend and teams switched.

The men’s state tournament is March 12-14 at UC Irvine and the women’s tournament starts March 12 at Concordia, then moves to UCI the next two days.