2022-23 Week 12: Perfect Seeds From Open to D-III in Semifinals

San Diego Section Open Division playoffs are down to four teams, with enticing contests tonight that match No. 4 seed San Ysidro (18-11) at 25-4 and No. 1 St. Augustine and No. 3 Montgomery (24-5) at No. 2 Carlsbad (24-5).

San Ysidro, in and out all season after the high expectations of Mikey Williams’ return from a two-year hiatus at a North Carolina academy,  has won five of its last six and apparently has improved its defense.

Coach Terry Tucker’s team won its two most recent games, 65-62, and 79-73, over Montgomery and La Costa Canyon, respectively. This from a squad that won a game when its opponent scored 100 points and more than 80  points in 12 others.

San Ysidro leads the section with an 83.2 offensive average and has scaled 100 three times. The Cougars are reminiscent of the Gary Zarecky-coached Sweetwater teams of the 1980s that in three seasons produced offensive averages of 92.3, 91.7, and 88.4.

One of  the stars on those Red Devils squads was Mahlon Williams, father of San Ysidro’s Mikey.

St. Augustine’s offensive average of 76.3 shows the Saints are able to stay up with anyone and their 57.2 defensive average pose a stiff challenge to the Cougars.

MONTGOMERY TAKES FLIGHT*

Ed Martin became coach at Montgomery in 2008-09, assuming a historically barren program that had just concluded a four-year run of 22-73.

Martin was an unpromising 8-20 in his first season, 10-16 in his next, and  flattened out at  5-21 in his third.

Montgomery is 223-117 and with a .658 win percentage since then and Martin takes his 24-5 squad  and No. 3 Open Division seeding to No.2 Carlsbad (24-5).

Montgomery has won 20 or more games in four of the last six seasons. The Aztecs are averaging  73.2 points against 51.9.  Carlsbad is the second highest scoring team in the San Diego Section with a 78-point average and is averaging 62 points on defense.

Seedings in the Open Division and in D-I, D-II, and D-III bring together the top four seeds in each. A a pair of upsets in D-V Tuesday night saw, 8 seed Classical upend No. 4 Del Lago, 61-51, and Santana, No. 6, edge Valley Center, No. 2, 55-53.

*John J. Montgomery, after whom the school was named when it opened in 1970, reportedly flew a powered glider about 600 feet in 1883 on nearby Otay Mesa, 20 years before the Wright Brothers’ described airplane flight in Kitty Hawk, N.C.