By Greg Murphy
Ventura College won its fifth tournament in five weeks and retained the #1
ranking in this week's COA/CCCWBCA State Poll. Contra Costa College moved
up 4 spots to take #2. Los Angeles Valley College and Mt. San Antonio
College tied for #3. Lassen College fell to #5.
Ventura avoided a rematch of nemesis Mt. San Antonio and had 3
double-digit wins in the Moorpark Classic, the tourney of the week. The
host college gave the Ventura Pirates the closest game, for the title, and
debuted on the state poll at #21. LA Valley placed in third-place after a
68-64 overtime win over #19 Fullerton College. Mt. SAC took the
consolation bracket.
In the East Bay Classic at Merritt College, the highest ranked college,
Lassen, lost to Contra Costa College in the first round, 77-58. Contra
Costa eventually met San Jose in the championship game and won, 67-62.
Fresno elided Porterville in the third-place game, 70-58. Lassen powered
though the consolation bracket to take that title.
Foothill College improved its position in the state poll by upsetting the
former #5 College of Marin and #8 host San Joaquin Delta College.
Foothill eventually lost to Umpqua, an Oregon community college, in the
1st place game, but jumped from #18 to #12 in the rankings. Delta dropped
to #15 while Marin found themselves at #7.
Sierra College entered the Solano Community College tournament at the top
team and came away with the title with a 7-point win over Sacramento City
College. Tami Cades of Sierra was the Most Valuable Player. Solano
survived overtime for a 52-50 win against De Anza College for third.
Modesto Junior College got its 2nd and 3rd wins of the season to take the
consolation side of the slate.
The two state-ranked colleges in the Allan Hancock tourney fell and
unranked Chaffey College came away from Santa Maria with the trophy in a
58-53 win over Hancock. #17 Cuesta College took third place. Sequoias
fell 3 spots into a tie for 22nd after sweeping the consolation bracket
following an opening a loss to Cuesta.
No colleges entered Santa Rosa Junior College's tournament in the state
rankings, but SRJC won the title and debuted at #20 in Tuesday's poll.
Their biggest test came from Southwestern Oregon, a 75-73 overtime
first-round victory. Shasta College evened its record at 6-6 with a
4-point win over City College of San Francisco for third place. SWOCC had
little trouble taking the consolation championship. Bianca McCall of
Santa Rosa was named the Most Valuable Player after averaging 21 points
and 20 rebounds per game.
Santa Barbara City College rebounded from a pre-tournament loss to Palomar
College to win the Southwestern College tournament. San Mateo took second
place while Cosumnes River was third. Oxnard and LA City colleges
continued to demonstrate its improvement from last season by making it to
the championship game of the inaugural Cuyamaca College Tournament.
Oxnard came out on top, 61-56. Cuyamaca placed third.
Chabot defeated Siskiyous for the second time in a week in the COA North
Region Game of the Week, 64-48. Siskiyous is still ranked above Chabot,
#14 and #16, in part from Chabot's 53-44 loss to Butte on the prior night.
In the North Region Poll, Chabot comes out on top at #9 vs. #10 for
Siskiyous. For the South Region, Pasadena had trouble with #10 College of
the Canyons to the tune of 98-79.
The Tournament of the Week is the Sacramento City College Christmas
Classic. #5 Lassen, #8 Sierra, #12 Foothill and #22 Sequoias will vie for
the title Friday-Sunday. In the Region Games of the Week, #11 Butte
travels to #18 San Jose this Saturday for a 4:00 pm tip-off. San
Bernardino Valley College looks for respect with a game at #19 Fullerton
College at 7:00 pm this Friday.
