Calexico Vincent Memorial and the Rock Academy, top seeds in Division IV and V, respectively, were among three ousted favorites in San Diego Section quarterfinals playoffs Friday night.

San Pasqual (16-13) defeated Vincent (22-7) , 56-52, and Classical (15-9) outlasted Rock (21-7), 49-45, in overtime in a pair of upset victories by No. 8-ranked teams.  On a  less dramatic stage No. 5 Rancho Buena Vista (20-10) edged No. 4 West Hills (24-5), 69-59, in D-III.

Open Division No. 1 seed St. Augustine defeated 8 Mater Dei, 88-62; 2 Carlsbad ushered out defending champion number 7 Torrey Pines, 65-57, in overtime; 3 Montgomery eliminated 6 Santa Fe Christian,  69-60, and San Ysidro won the 4-5 game with La Costa Canyon, 79-73.

Despite the  big reversals in D-IV and V, the playoffs pretty much have been chalk.  There have been only  nine upsets in the  two rounds of 65 games, an 86.2 winning percentage and a nod to the value of power ratings.

Semifinals play in all five divisions resumes Wednesday at the sites of the favored seeds. Quarterfinals results with upsets highlighted:

Six favorites went down in Boys’ divisions I-V in the 38-game first round of the San Diego Section playoffs.

Seedings are based on power ratings that essentially are a comparison of “who you played and how who you played did.”

There were some stunners, three in D-IV and V.

Brawley (8-18), a 15th-ranked struggler in D-V,  traveled 132 miles and over the cold and windy mountains to startle Clairemont (22-6), the No. 2 seed, 55-40.

There also were a couple 3-14 upsets.

Play resumes Friday, including quarterfinals games in the eight-team Open Division.

Surprises are  highlighted.

Union-Tribune prep czar John Maffei announced that this week’s poll will be for the regular season, which has ended, and that a final poll will be released following the last time out, basket, or free throw, and final tick of the scoreboard clock in the playoffs.

St. Augustine so far has run the table, amassing all 19 votes for first place since Maffei’s weekly ballots went out in November.

The No. 1-seeded Saints (24-4) will begin Open Division playoffs Friday night at home against No. 8 Mater Dei (21-7), the poll’s sixth-ranked team this week.

A perhaps more interesting matchup Friday will be the  game between 4  seed San Ysidro (17-11) and 5 La Costa Canyon (16-11). Each posted impressive wins in their final pre-playoff tests,  San Ysidro, 65-62 over Montgomery, and the Mavericks, 59-41 over Torrey Pines.

The Mavericks will have to negotiate more than 40 miles of Southbound Interstate 5 during afternoon rush hour before they will reach the Cougars’ lair.

Other Open Division jousts will send 6 seed Santa Fe Christian (24-4) to No. 3 Montgomery (24-4)  in another I-5 challenge and 7 seed Torrey Pines (18-10) to 2 seed Carlsbad (23-5).

Play in Divisions 1-5 will be Tuesday night, except for the D-III clash featuring 13 seed Escondido Charter at 4 Rancho Buena Vista on Wednesday.

Teams with the best (lower number) seed will be at home.

LIONS ROAR

“Maffei Madness”, not unlike March Madness, began last night when San Diego Jewish Academy (9-14) and 99th in the San Diego Section, according to MaxPreps, won a play-in game by defeating 16-13 High Tech Mesa, 55-48, ranked No. 105 and champion of the Pioneer League, on the neutral First Church of the Nazarene court.

The Lions’ reward will be a third game against No. 1-seeded Rock (20-6), winner of the Ocean League, in which San Diego Jewish finished fourth. Rock, ranked 50th in the San Diego Section, defeated the Lions, 63-36, and 65-27 in league play.

The San Diego Union-Tribune Week 11 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

La Jolla Country Day (19-7, 7 points),  Del Norte (18-7, 4), Coronado (21-7), Ramona (18-9), and Victory Christian (20-8,  2 points each).

• 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.

The leagues and teams sometimes are different and some teams play football in one league and basketball in another.  Some teams don’t play football and some of these leagues don’t offer football.

MaxPreps ranks any team in California that provides information and Max’s information is not always complete.  Cal-Hi Sports rates from 1 to 25 and then cites many more considered to be on “On the Bubble.”

Max received information from 124 San Diego Section schools this season, compared to 84 football-playing schools in 2022.

Winning a league championship is the first step  to the playoffs for aspiring teams, although teams that did not win their league may be seeded higher in the postseason and may have better overall records.

But that doesn’t diminish the achievements of the champions of the 42 Boys’ and Girls’ circuits in the San Diego Section.  Ask any coach, the initial goal at the start of the season is to “win our league.”

The 22-23 league champions with state rankings by MaxPreps and Cal-Hi Sports:

BOYS

GIRLS

One week to go in the regular season and the ranks have been shaken.

St. Augustine, Carlsbad, and Montgomery remained 1-2-3 in the latest Union-Tribune vote, but seven others changed positions. Most notable were Santa Fe Christian’s leapfrogging from No. 8 to No. 4 and Mater Dei’s rising from No. 9 to No. 6.

Santa Fe, its regular season complete at 25-4 and a co-champion in the Coastal League with La Jolla Country Day (19-7), defeated Army-Navy, 99-65, The Bishop’s, 77-64, and Montgomery, 70-69, last week.

The Falcons and Torreys each posted 11-1 league records.  Country Day, unranked in San Diego, won the first meeting, 74-55, and the Falcons took the follow-up, 74-65.  Santa Fe is ranked 66th in California by MaxPreps and Country Day 120th.

Three other teams unranked by the Union-Tribune panel, were given higher state-wide grades by the computer than Lincoln, No. 8 locally but 142 in Max’s algorithms.  Del Norte is 105th, San Diego 114th, and El Camino 122nd.

Mater Dei is 7-4 in the Metro Mesa circuit, third to Montgomery’s 10-0 and San Ysidro’s 8-2.  The Crusaders moved up by the strength of a 92-86 win over San Ysidro after a 74-65 defeat of Otay Ranch.  The Crusaders finish Wednesday against Olympian.

The San Diego Union-Tribune Week 10 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.

Others receiving votes

La Jolla Country Day (19-7, 6 points),  Victory Christian (16-8, 3), El Camino (17-7, 2), Ramona (16-9, 2), Del Norte (15-7, 1).

VOTING PANEL

• 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.

Despite an 84-72 loss to Sherman Oaks Notre Dame in the Nike Extravaganza in Santa Ana last week, St. Augustine remained a  unanimous No. 1 in  the San Diego Section poll this week and could take a 24-4 record into the playoffs.

The Saints open the semifinal week of the regular season with two Western League games on the road.  They’ll attempt to repeat a 92-61 win over 12-11 Hoover Tuesday and a 93-52 rout of 3-17 Patrick Henry on Friday.

Coach Mike Haupt’s team will close at home against a pair of tougher league opponents in Week 10, against 13-11 Cathedral and 17-6 Mission Bay.  The Saint defeated those two, 71-58, and 65-59, respectively, in the first round of loop competition.

The San Diego Union-Tribune Week 9 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.

Others receiving votes

La Costa Canyon (12-10, 11points), La Jolla Country Day (18-7, 8 points),  Otay Ranch (15-8, 7), Del Norte (14-6, 2), Victory Christian (15-8, 1).

VOTING PANEL

• 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.