By Greg Murphy
Last week was light on games due to the New Year's holiday falling on a
Tuesday shortening the week to 4 days of play. The Winter freeze with
unanimous votes for #1 Ventura College has begun to thaw as Butte College
received one of the ten top votes in this week's COA/CCCWBCA State Poll.
LA Valley College moved to 3rd while Contra Costa College is tied with
Lassen College at #4.
Foothill Conference play started on January 2 and Chaffey, Antelope Valley
and Rio Hondo colleges topped the standings by the end of the week. The
biggest games were Chaffey's 63-48 win over College of the Desert while
Rio Hondo had one of their best games of the season with a 30-point win
over San Bernardino Valley College.
Regular conference play begins this week for Bay Valley, Orange Empire and
Western State conferences. Coast and South Coast conferences continue
with their interdivision preamble. Nonconference and interdivisional
games were the order for last week with colleges outside of Foothill.
Nineteen colleges idled including #8 Orange Coast College, #11 College of
the Canyons and all 6 members of Pacific Coast Conference.
South Coast Conference has had a smattering of interdivision games during
the Fall, but it got serious last week. The South Region Game of the Week
-- #12 LA Trade-Technical College was undefeated vs. COA opponents until
they marched into #7 Cerritos College's gym last Friday and fell 63-61.
#6 Mt. San Antonio had an easy win over LA Harbor. Compton Community
College had a slim 54-52 victory over LA City College.
Games were anything but close in Coast Conference. Four colleges went 2-0
in interdivisional matches: #13 San Jose City, Chabot, San Francisco and
De Anza. The closest it got was CCSF's 52-43 home win over College of San
Mateo. Chabot tripped #19 Foothill 60-48.
Bay Valley Conference's Bay Division traveled to Golden Valley Conference
colleges over the weekend for a double-dose of winter weather and the
conferences split their 12 contests. Lassen recovered from the prior
week's upset with an upset of last week's #3, Contra Costa, 61-54. They
wound up tied for 4th in this week's poll although Lassen is ranked higher
in the North Region Poll at #2 to Contra Costa's #3 by a single point.
Shasta College surprised #9 College of Marin and bowed in the state
rankings at #22. Diablo Valley nabbed a win for BVC with a 63-59 upset of
previously ranked #18 College of the Siskiyous. It made for a long couple
of days for the Weed college as Santa Rosa Junior College pulled off their
own upset of them the night before, 60-56. Butte College entrenched
themselves with the #2 state ranking with a 66-38 win over Santa Rosa.
Santa Rosa Rosa to #18 in this week's poll while Siskiyous fell to the
ranks of those who also received votes.
Although Western State Conference no longer schedule interdivision games,
the week was filled with unofficial-WSC interdivision tilts. Ventura
nearly quadrupled Citrus College's point total. Rio Hondo played Santa
Barbara City College tough, but SBCC came away with the 5-point win and a
#25 state ranking. LA Valley returned the favor with their home-and-home
series with #15t Moorpark College and won in Moorpark's gym 60-56.
Orange Empire Conference was idle with the exception of Golden West
College. They snuck past Rio Hondo College 55-53 at home. Central Valley
Conference only had 3 nonconference contests. Merced College's 72-70
upset over #24 Sacramento City College. College of the Sequoias had a big
surprise when Bakersfield stole their 2nd win of the season, knocking COS
out of the state rankings. The final was 58-57.
#14 Sierra College has a chance to pull of an upset of #10 San Joaquin
Delta College at home on Tuesday in a Bay Valley Conference Valley
Division opener in the North Division Game of the Week. For South Region,
we look to #21 Santa Ana as they travel to Saddleback College on Wednesday
in an Orange Empire Conference opener. Santa Ana is #11 in the South
while Saddleback is #18.
