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Eighty San Diego Section basketball teams began the playoffs 12 days ago, boys and girls each seeking championships in seven divisions. Basketballs were rolled out for a total of 216 games and in only 25 did the seeded favorite not win, but three No. 1’s were defeated on the final weekend of play. Seven teams, including ...

It’s the week that matters most. Semifinal playoffs have advanced  into championship games, which begin tonight, Thursday, February 27, with finals in Boys and Girls Divisions IV, V and VAA. D-IV Games tonight will be at Sage Creek, beginning with 6 seed Del Lago and 1 seed Tri City in Boys , followed by Girls 7 Crawford ...

One week and 96 playoff games in the rear view mirror, San Diego Section playoff teams move into semifinals and championship rounds this week, all six Boys’ and five of six Girls’ No. 1 seeds still standing. The outlier is in Girls’ Division IV,  where Escondido, a No. 9 seed, stunned number one Patrick Henry, 36-34, ...

There were five so-called surprises (highlighted below) in the  first round, but one of those reversals was an upset.  No, it was a lot more than that, Chula Vista, a No. 14 seed  with a 9-17 record, shocked third-ranked Horizon Prep, which entered  the game with a 16-4 record, 44-35, in Division IV.  La Costa Canyon, ...

80 teams and 40 games opened the San Diego Section Boys playoffs last night.  Girls first-round competition is tonight. Surprises, the polite term for upsets, were few. Six that are highlighted below. Most significant was Helix (12-17) a 14 seed but with a long tradition of success, defeating No. 3 and 21-6 Christian, 43-41, in Division II. DIVISION ...

Twenty-eight teams won or shared 24 league championships, according to Max Preps, which provides editorial content as supplied by respondents. Lincoln was the competitive champion in the Central League but was suspended from the playoffs, giving a league co-title to Canyon Hills and Coronado.  There were no signs of life in the Manzanita League; its teams ...

What’s in a league championship? Especially in this era of power ratings and strengths of schedules and what they mean in playoff pairings and postseason division assignments, which were to be announced today. A league title represents essentially just bragging rights, but ask the players and coaches who achieved it and what they think when banners are ...

John Maffei’s weekly The San Diego Union poll. First place votes in parenthesis.                                                                                      ...

John Maffei’s weekly The San Diego Union poll. First-place votes in parenthesis. Points on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. Bold entries in columns are up-to-date rankings, followed by previous. Cal-Hi Sports’ and Max-Preps’ represent state rankings. NR—Not ranked. Records as of Feb 2. TEAM RECORD POINTS PREVIOUS MAXPREPS CAL-HI SPORTS 1 Montgomery 22-2 (18) 180 1 11/13 16/15 2 San Marcos 21-3 160 2 25/30 On Bubble/Bubble 3 Torrey Pines 19-5 137 4 41/51 On Bubble/27 4 Carlsbad 17-5 128 3 30/26 On Bubble/NR 5 Olympian 17-2 113 5 52/40 NR-NR 6 Mission Bay 17-6 87 7 49/53 NR-NR 7 Cathedral 15-8 66 6 85/77 NR-NR 8 Santa Fe Christian 19-4 65 8 57/61 NR-NR 9 San Diego 19-4 25 10 119/130 NR-NR 10 St. Augustine 10-14 21 9 164/171 NR-NR Others receiving votes La Jolla Country Day (14-10, ...

The long game ended the longest wait in the 18-season history of the San Diego Section.  Hilltop’s 3-1 victory over Vista in the 17-inning 2-A finals marked the first year that a team not from the Eastern, Western or Grossmont leagues had won the title. Championships had been won by Eastern League schools Hoover (4), Crawford ...

The January grind continues with virtually no change in the Top 10 last week as teams try to position themselves for the February stretch run. The only movement was all the way down in ninth and 10th places. St. Augustine moved up to No. 9, and San Diego High made its first appearance at No. 10.  ...

Olympian upset (?) Montgomery, 53-47, in a Metro Mesa League game but the voters weren’t too impressed. The Aztecs remained No. 1 in the poll and the Eagles advanced only from eighth to fifth despite an overall record of 16-2.  Montgomery is 18-2. Olympian’s losses were 60-56 to Francis Parker and 63-60 to now-No. 2 San ...

John Maffei’s weekly The San Diego Union poll. First-place votes in parenthesis. Points on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. Bold entries in columns are up-to-date rankings, followed by previous. Cal-Hi Sports’ and Max-Preps’ represent state rankings. NR—Not ranked. Records as of Feb. 12. TEAM RECORD POINTS PREVIOUS MAXPREPS CAL-HI SPORTS 1 Montgomery 17-1 (18) 180 1 8-9 11/10 2 Carlsbad 13-2 162 2 15-24 15-14 3 San Marcos 15-3 142 3 28-27 On Bubble/NR 4 Mission Bay 13-4 125 4 40-34 NR-NR 5 Cathedral 12-6 97 6 91-110 NR-NR 6 Torrey Pines 13-5 90 7 67-68 NR-NR 7 Santa Fe Christian 15-4 71 5 75-64 NR-NR 8 Olympian 13-2 56 8 58-54 NR-NR 9 La Jolla Country Day 10-9 35 8 139-154 NR-NR 10 Mission Hills 11-6 8 NR 182 NR-NR Others receiving votes Francis Parker (11-7, 7 points), ...

Max Turner of Granite Hills wrapped the San Diego Section scoring championship after he rushed for three touchdowns in the Eagles’ 34-28, Southern California regional playoff loss against Huntington Beach Edison. Turner’s 216 points outpaced the 188 of Calipatria’s Dominic Hawk and the 5-foot-8, 185-pounder was a model of consistency for coach Kellan Cobbs’ team, scoring ...

San Diego Section basketball teams, after hundreds of games and enough travel to catch the attention of Triple-A, are settling into the January-February grind of league play and selected intersectionals before the Southern California playoffs. Montgomery is No. 1 in John Maffei’s latest The San Diego Union-Tribune poll and No. 8 in California, according to Max ...

El Camino High, three years removed from opening its doors and splitting from Oceanside High (taking many outstanding athletes and football coach Herb Meyer), became the first San Diego County team since San Diego High in 1938 to win a state team championship. The Wildcats scored 16 points, edging Gardena and Pasadena, which had 15 each. Darrell ...

Dick Serrano coached his second San Diego Section championship team and continued to leave a legacy at the school, from which he graduated in 1961 and which he guided the baseball program for 30 years until his retirement after the 2000 season. Unlike the 1972 team that finished the regular season with a 12-10 record and ...

John Maffei’s final The San Diego Union poll (first published after the San Diego Section playoffs) plus MaxPreps, Calpreps, and Cal-Hi Sports rankings that include end-of-season CIF state playoffs): Points awarded on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. *First-place votes. Previous ranking in (italics). Bold indicates latest. NR–Not ranked. MaxPreps‘, Calpreps’, and Cal-Hi Sports‘ are state rankings. RANK TEAM/RECORD POINTS MAXPREPS CALPREPS.COM CAL-HI SPORTS 1. Lincoln (10-2) 30* 300 (1) 10 (12) 67.5 ...

San Diego Section teams were 1-2 in state championship games last week, with Lincoln’s hard fought, 28-26 win over Pittsburg at Mission Viejo Saddleback College in Division 1-AA a tribute to coach David Dunn and his staff. Dunn coached the Hornets to a second D1-AA title in three seasons and their 35th victory in the last ...

Three veteran coaches will lead the San Diego Section contingent in state championship games this week at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo and Fullerton High. Monte Vista’s Ron Hamamoto, who also coached at University, Rancho Bernardo, and Lincoln, has an all-time record of 246-193-2 (.560) and trails only Herb Meyer (339) and John Carroll (248) in ...