Winning San Diego teams highlighted.

BOYS QUARTERFINALS

GIRLS QUARTERFINALS

First round action in the Southern California regional playoffs saw San Diego’s 36-team Boys and Girls contingent dwindle to 13, which will begin semifinals play tonight.

Wiped out with an 0-8 record in Boys’ Divisions I  & II, it was left to the Open Division’s St. Augustine. The 4 seed Saints rallied to a 63-60 victory over No. 5 Valencia West Hills before a loud, capacity crowd of more than 2,000 and then some.

A drone also floated above the court during pregame warmups and then disappeared as quietly as it arrived.

The host Saints took an early 11-4 lead, fell behind, 19-18, at the end of the first quarter, and then drifted back and forth with deficits up to six points against the tall (University of Texas-bound center Jazz Gardner is 7 feet) Wildcats.  St. Augustine finally went ahead again, 57-56, on Lolo  Rudolph’s basket with 2:50 remaining.

A long looper by Jason Matingou gave the Saints some air at 62-58 and they rode out a tense and scrambling final 1:11.

Most impressive win for San Diego teams  was by coach Robbie Sandoval’s Mount Miguel girls, a 14 seed in D-I.  The Matadors won at No. 3 Los Angeles Windward, 61-60.

La Jolla Country Day’s Open Division No. 2 seed Torreys girls (29-3) will try to repeat a 70-65 victory last month over the Rancho Cucamonga Etiwanda Eagles Saturday night at home.

A story about tonight’s semifinals games and seedings will follow.

San Diego Section winners highlighted:

BOYS

GIRLS

St. Augustine wrapped the San Diego Section season—the Southern California regionals are next–with an 85-53 win over Montgomery before about 3,000 persons at Cathedral Saturday night, finishing off the Aztecs with a 28-11 fourth quarter.

The Saints were the No. 1-seed team in the Open Division and played like it, winning by a combined total of 73 points in their three games.  There were earlier wins of 88-62 over Mater Dei and 82-67 over San Ysidro.

The power ratings, which determined the playoff seeds, saw the favorite emerge in 62 of 80 games, a winning percentage of 78 per cent.  There were six upsets in 38 first-round games, four in 24 quarterfinals, five in 12 semifinals, and three in six championship contests.

The ratings lost some of their power as the playoffs extended.  Only two of six No. 1 seeds earned championships.  And hats off to the Classical Caimans, an eight seed who ran the table in Division V.

St. Augustine (27-4), on a run of 15 victories in 16 games, has lost to just one California team, 84-72, to Sherman Oaks Notre Dame a couple weeks ago in Santa Ana.  The other losses were 79-70 to Las Vegas Bishop Gorman, 84-76 to Kell of Marietta, Georgia, and 71-65, to St. John’s of Washington, D.C.

Hotter than the hot Saints are coach Jeff Harper-Harris’ Lincoln Hornets, who claimed D-II with a 59-54 victory over Otay Ranch,  a team that beat the Hive, 70-54, in the second game of the season.

The Hornets have won 20 in a row, their only other loss, 54-49 to Fountain Fort Carson, a 19-6 team in Colorado.

Championship game results with upsets/surprises highlighted:

Records are current with the finals of the San Diego Section playoffs and does not include CIF State Regional playoff results.

The San Diego Union-Tribune Week 11 final 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.

Others receiving votes

Torrey Pines (18-11, 14 points),  Victory Christian (24-8, 9). Del Norte (20-7,4), Otay Ranch (21-11, 2) Ramona (21-10, 2).

• 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.

Montgomery knocked off favored Carlsbad in a battle of Open Division 3 and 2 seeds and 3 seed Ramona edged No. 2 High Tech San Diego in Division III, but the most surprises have been in IV and V, where San Pasqual, Classical, a pair of No. 8 seeds, continued on their unexpected runs in the San Diego Section playoffs.

Underdogs won 4 of 5 semifinal games in D-III, IV, and V, with results below highlighted.

D-III and D-V finals are tonight, with D-III top-ranked Victory Christian meeting Ramona at Mira Mesa High and the No. 8  Classical Caimans taking on No. 6 Santana in D-V at Otay Ranch.

The D-I championship, La Jolla Country Day versus Mission Bay, is Friday at St. Augustine and D-II, Lincoln versus Otay Ranch, is at Mira Mesa Friday.  San Pasqual faces Imperial in D-IV Friday at Otay Ranch. The Open Division title game, Montgomery-St. Augustine, is Saturday night at Cathedral.

Meanwhile, host St. Augustine handled San Ysidro, 83-67, in the second Open Division semifinal last night before a standing-room, sitting-in-the-aisles, watching-from-the upper-concourses crowd of more than 2,000. The scene was reminiscent of  many raucous, where’s-the-fire-marshal winter nights in the old, tiny, and mostly unlamented Daugherty Gym.  The school’s parking garage also was full and parking was at a premium on neighboring streets.

Mikey Williams (12 points) and J.J. Taylor (15) were the main objects of the Saints’ quick, harassing defense, although freshman Ty Ingram sneaked unnoticed for 31 points, including nine three pointers, for the Cougars.  San Ysidro defenders often were absent as coach Mike Haupt’s Saints repeatedly scored from point-blank range.

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.