2022-23 Week 8: Saints’ Busy Week Ends With Nike Event

St. Augustine, priming for what it hopes will be a deep run in the postseason playoffs, has a pair of Western League  games this week and a final, tough intersectional test against Sherman Oaks Notre Dame Saturday in the Nike Extravaganza at Santa Ana Mater Dei.

The Saints have a home game Wednesday against Hoover (11-9) and are at San Diego (15-7) Friday.  Then they’ll play the next day at 5 p.m. against the Notre Dame Knights, ranked seventh by Cal-Hi Sports (St. Augustine is sixth) and 14th by MaxPreps (the Saints are fifth), the two major state polls.

Notre Dame is 16-8 and was beaten by San Ysidro, 87-82, here in December.  The Knights play in the powerful Mission League, which includes Studio City Harvard-Westlake (23-1) and Chatsworth Sierra Canyon (18-5).

The Saints and Knights are the only teams to have defeated San Ramon Dougherty Valley, a 19-2 team from the North Coast Section.  St. Augustine has a 62-58 victory and Notre Dame a 65-53 win over the Wildcats.

The Mesa League picture should come into more focus Wednesday when Montgomery, 6-0 in league play, 18-3 overall, and averaging 74.8 points, visits San Ysidro, 5-0 in league, 12-8 overall, and averaging 83.3 points.

The San Diego Union-Tribune Week 8 poll:

First-place votes in parenthesis.
Points on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.
First-place votes in parenthesis. Last entries in columns indicate previous rank.
Cal-Hi Sports’ and Max Preps’ represent state rankings. NR—Not ranked.

# TEAM RECORD POINTS PREVIOUS MAX-PREPS CAL-HI SPORTS
1 St. Augustine 18-3 (19) 190 1 5/5 6/6
2 Carlsbad 18-4 171 2 38/42 Bubble/Bubble
3 San Ysidro 12-8 142 3 66/104 Bubble/Bubble
4 Montgomery 17-3 124 5 52/57 NR/NR
5 Mission Bay 16-6 113 4 79/89 NR/NR
6 Torrey Pines 15-6 98 6 61/77 NR/NR
7 Mater Dei 16-6 65 7 99/90 NR/NR
8 Lincoln 20-2 51 9 147/143 NR/NR
9 Santa Fe Christian 17-4 28 8 103/96 NR/NR
10 La Costa Canyon 11-9 25 NR 73/92 NR/NR

Others receiving votes

La Jolla Country Day (17-6, 13 points), West Hills (19-2, 7), Otay Ranch (13-7, 7), Del Norte (12-5, 6), San Diego (15-7, 5), Otay Ranch (12-6, 14), Victory Christian (15-5, 4), Mission Hills (12-9, 1).

VOTING PANEL

  • John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune.
  • Steve Brand, Terry Monahan, Eric Williams, Freelance contributors.
  • Rick Smith, partletonsports.com.
  • Adam Paul, eastcountysports.com.
  • John Kentera, Braden Supremant (97.3 FM The Fan).
  • Bodie DeSilva, scoreboardlive.com.
  • Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country 107.9 FM.
  • Christian Pedersen, San Diego Sports Association.
  • Todd Cassen, Joe Heinz, Ron Marquez, CIF San Diego Section.
  • Rex Johnson, CIF Advisory Committee.
  • Joe Evangelist, San Diego Coaching Legends Committee.
  • Tom Helmantoler, Southern Conference Advisor.
  • Aaron Burgin, fulltimehoops.com.
  • Max-Preps.