2022-23 Week 11B: The Saints Are Ranked No. 1 and Playoff-seeded No. 1

Union-Tribune prep czar John Maffei announced that this week’s poll will be for the regular season, which has ended, and that a final poll will be released following the last time out, basket, or free throw, and final tick of the scoreboard clock in the playoffs.

St. Augustine so far has run the table, amassing all 19 votes for first place since Maffei’s weekly ballots went out in November.

The No. 1-seeded Saints (24-4) will begin Open Division playoffs Friday night at home against No. 8 Mater Dei (21-7), the poll’s sixth-ranked team this week.

A perhaps more interesting matchup Friday will be the  game between 4  seed San Ysidro (17-11) and 5 La Costa Canyon (16-11). Each posted impressive wins in their final pre-playoff tests,  San Ysidro, 65-62 over Montgomery, and the Mavericks, 59-41 over Torrey Pines.

The Mavericks will have to negotiate more than 40 miles of Southbound Interstate 5 during afternoon rush hour before they will reach the Cougars’ lair.

Other Open Division jousts will send 6 seed Santa Fe Christian (24-4) to No. 3 Montgomery (24-4)  in another I-5 challenge and 7 seed Torrey Pines (18-10) to 2 seed Carlsbad (23-5).

Play in Divisions 1-5 will be Tuesday night, except for the D-III clash featuring 13 seed Escondido Charter at 4 Rancho Buena Vista on Wednesday.

Teams with the best (lower number) seed will be at home.

LIONS ROAR

“Maffei Madness”, not unlike March Madness, began last night when San Diego Jewish Academy (9-14) and 99th in the San Diego Section, according to MaxPreps, won a play-in game by defeating 16-13 High Tech Mesa, 55-48, ranked No. 105 and champion of the Pioneer League, on the neutral First Church of the Nazarene court.

The Lions’ reward will be a third game against No. 1-seeded Rock (20-6), winner of the Ocean League, in which San Diego Jewish finished fourth. Rock, ranked 50th in the San Diego Section, defeated the Lions, 63-36, and 65-27 in league play.

The San Diego Union-Tribune Week 11 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. Records as of Monday, Feb. 13.

# TEAM RECORD POINTS PREVIOUS MAX-PREPS CAL-HI SPORTS
1 St. Augustine 24-4 (19) 190 1 9/9 6/6
2 Carlsbad 23-5 171 2 35/40 NR/On the Bubble
3 Montgomery 23-5 138 3 54/48 NR/NR
4 San Ysidro 17-11 130 5 63/66 NR/NR
5 Santa Fe Christian 24-4 94 4 71/71 NR/NR
6 Mater Dei 21-7 75 6 82/78 NR/NR
7 Mission Bay 20-8 65 7 85/81 NR/NR
8 La Costa Canyon 16-11 62 10 66/76 NR/NR
9 Lincoln 25-2 59 8 142/147 NR/NR
10 Torrey Pines 18-10 27 9 81/63 NR/NR

Others receiving votes

La Jolla Country Day (19-7, 7 points),  Del Norte (18-7, 4), Coronado (21-7), Ramona (18-9), and Victory Christian (20-8,  2 points each).

  • 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.