The Imperial Girls, who have become road favorites of Triple-A, having amassed about 670 miles of travel in their last three playoff games, and the long-range shooters from Scripps Ranch will be in Sacramento on Saturday, each with a chance to come home with a state championship.

Max Preps, the computer outlet which coordinated the CIF state playoff pairings, does not favor the San Diego Section entries.

The Tigers from the Imperial Valley  face another long ride, 590 miles to the Golden Center in Sacramento, from which their opponent from the community of Ross is about 70 miles away.

The big computer ranks The Branson Bulls from the North Coast Section 100th in the state in girls’ Division-IV and Imperial 152nd.

Imperial, however, has won 21 of its last 22 games and took advantage of its tournament  selection as a No. 6 seed despite losing, 29-23, to Fallbrook in the San Diego Section finals.

NICOLAS CAGE SIGHTING?

It’s possible, I guess, if the renowed movie actor  happens to be in Sacramento and wants to check out his alma-mater, Napa Justin-Sienna, against Scripps Ranch.

The Braves, located about 60 miles from Sacramento, also are favored by Max Preps, which gave them a state rating of 191 this week to the 219 received by the Falcons.

GIRLS

BOYS

GIRLS

BOYS

Win Tuesday evening and play a state championship game in Sacramento on Friday.

That is the goal this week for the three remaining girls and boys basketball teams from the San Diego Section.

Victory Christian, formerly Lutheran, located in Chula Vista, was coached until mid-season this year by Sa’de Wiley-Greenwood, a legendary high school player at Lynwood, where she led her team to a 33-0 in 2002 and was Cal-Hi Sports‘ state player of the year.

FALCONS COULD SET HISTORY

Scripps Ranch will attempt to win a second Southern California championship in the same school year, never accomplished by a San Diego Section squad.

The Falcons defeated Santa Clara Wilcox, 31-28, for the state Division II-A championship in 2021 after winning the Southern California title, 45-38 over Santa Clarita Valencia.

Pairings:

GIRLS

BOYS

The Scripps Ranch boys and Victory Christian girls won respective division semifinal games in the Southern California regionals playoffs.

BOYS

GIRLS

The road gets longer and theoretically with more bumps for Mt. Carmel and coach Greg Lanthier’s three-point-shooting snipers.

Lanthier, who won a San Diego Section championship as coach at Vista in 1992-93, takes his Divison III 10th-seeded SunDevils (25-9)  up the Coast Highway 160 miles to play 4 seed Calabasas Viewpoint (20-6).

Mt. Carmel is ranked 18th in the San Diego Section by Max Preps . Viewpoint defeated San Diego’s No. 15, San Dieguito, 64-59, in the first round.

Meanwhile, Scripps Ranch, No. 2 in D-IV and 23-11 on the season, will play host to the Central Section’s Bakersfield Golden Valley (23-8).

The Bishop’s, the only remaining Division II team in the state with a seed as high as No. 13,  moves into the Southern California playoffs semifinals Saturday night.

The Knights (17-7), under first-year coach Paris Johnson, who played at San Diego High and San Diego State and replaced mentor Marlon Wells, now face their stiffest test at No. 1 Corona Santiago (23-9).

Wells, who won more than 500 games at San Diego and The Bishop’s, resigned before the 2021-22 season.  One reason and possibly the most important was that Wells lives in Temecula.

The coach, also active and successful in Club basketball, commuted about 60 miles each way  to the La Jolla campus.

Perhaps Wells was prescient and  knew how high gas prices would become in Southern California.