Greater challenges lie ahead, but San Diego Section teams in the Southern California regional playoffs were successful in three of four Open Division quarterfinals games last night.
—The Foothills Christian Knights stunned Santa Ana Mater Dei, dealing the Monarchs their first loss at home in 10 years, 50-46, and moving on to Tuesday’s semifinals and a third shot at Chino Hills, the nation’s No. 1 team.
The 31-0 Huskies defeated Foothills, 106-86, and 85-83, earlier in the season and their Open quarterfinals, 103-71 victory over Reedley Immanuel tied Chino Hills with the 1995-96 San Francisco Balboa Buccaneers for a state-record, eighteen 100-point games.
Fifth-seeded Foothills (25-4) reversed a 61-53 loss to No. 4 Mater Dei (27-5) five weeks ago, benefitting from the Monarchs 5-for-25 shooting on three-point attempts and closing down low to outrebound their hosts, 34-18.
T.J. Leaf led the winners with 21 points, blocked three shots, and brought down 16 rebounds.
The Knights trailed only at 2-0 and tenaciously kept the Monarchs at a distance in the second half in the hosts’ big arena game environment of scoring table dasher boards, jumbotron, and almost 2,500 raucous fans.
The Foothills-Chino game will be at Colony High in Ontario Tuesday night at 7.
—Seventh-seeded Cathedral defeated No. 2 Chatsworth Sierra Canyon in overtime, 83-80, in arguably the major boys upset of the postseason.
According to Max Preps, Cathedral was ranked 31st in the state and 156th nationally. Sierra Canyon was fourth in California and ninth in the country. Cathedral stood 17th in the state, according to Cal-Hi Sports, while Sierra was fourth.
Complicating the Dons’ bid was the absence 6-11 Brandon McCoy, who was on the bench in foul trouble for all but four minutes of the first half. McCoy, who scored 23 points, led a Dons comeback that had the visitors in front, 73-65, late in the fourth quarter.
Sierra Canyon tied the score at 73 to force the overtime but Cathedral raced to an 83-73 advantage in the extra session and held on.
Cathedral (21-6) now faces the 3 seed, Torrance Bishop Montgomery (27-2), which overcame Los Angeles Westchester, 72-58, in overtime and outscored Sierra Canyon, 78-69, two weeks ago in the Southern Section playoffs.
—The fourth-seed Mission Hills girls (29-3) defeated No. 5 Los Angeles Price, 49-45, and get No. 1-ranked West Hills Chaminade in the San Fernando Valley suburb on Tuesday.
Mission Hills is ranked sixth and Chaminade fourth in the Cal-Hi Sports ratings, but Chaminade is second in California and fourth in the country as seen by Max Preps, which ranks the Grizzlies 23rd in California and 99th in the country.
The only Open Division losers from the San Diego Section were the La Jolla Country Day girls, beaten, 46-39, by host Long Beach Poly.
