2017-18 Week 14: Six Remain Out of 32 in Regionals

Six San Diego Section teams, from the original 32, reach the semifinals of the Southern California state regional playoffs tonight.

An all-San Diego Section final is possible in Boys Division V, but both teams, 5 San Diego and 11 San Diego Southwest, face higher seeds on the road, 1 Canyon Country Santa Clarita Christian and 7 Van Nuys, respectively.

The Cavers, following the remergence of their football team, are making their first appearance in a Southern Califronia semifinal since they lost to Burbank Burroughs, 59-50, in 1955.

At least one girls team from here will be in the D-II finals, because 15 Cathedral (21-11) or 3 San Marcos (21-7) meet tonight at San Marcos.

Christian (23-9), seeded 13th in boys D-IV, is at 1 Riverside Hillcrest (32-3) tonight and 9 Mater Dei will travel 300 miles North to face No. 5 Tulare Mission Oak (25-7) of the Central Section in girls D-IV.

Mater Dei roiled the brackets last week when it rode a 28-20 last quarter to upset No. 1 Bonita Vista, 75-67, after losing twice to the Barons in the regular season.

For the other 26 teams in the playoffs the season ended last week, their conclusions reminiscent of  the popular 1960’s surfer tune “Wipeout.”

Local clubs, even those favored in the seedings, went down under a wave of Southern Section power.  All of the teams in the final Union-Tribune Top 10 were given happy trails sendoffs in the first or second round. Hardest hit were our big ones in the Open Division and D-I.

Mission Bay (56-34 to Torrance Bishop Montgomery), and Foothills Christian (88-62 to Chatsworth Sierra Canyon) fell early in the Open Division.  Torrey Pines, the 2 seed in D-I, was beaten in overtime by 15 Taft Woodland Hills, 81-74.

The only question about theTorrey Pines defeat was why Taft was a 15 seed.  The Torreadors long have been a Los Angeles City Section blueblood and annually one of the better teams in Southern California.

Tonight’s matchups: