By Greg Murphy
The order of the top 5 shuffled in the 11th regular season COA/CCCWBCA
State Poll this week. Ventura College (20-2) remained the top choice with
Los Angeles Valley College (20-4) taking the runner-up spot. Lassen
College (21-4) now shares third with conference rival Butte College
(20-4). Contra Costa College (21-5) fell to #5 as a result.
Ventura had a scare with Santa Barbara City College on Saturday. The game
was tied early in the second half, but Ventura went on a run which turned
out to be the difference in the game. Ventura won by 9 points, 68-59.
SBCC earned respect and came in higher in both polls for the narrow loss,
#22 for the state. Moorpark and Cuesta colleges were ranked #16 and #17
respectively in last week's poll. A 73-49 win for Moorpark moved them
widely apart in this week. Moorpark is now #14 while Cuesta finds itself
on the bottom edge of the top 20. Ventura leads Western State Conference
North Division while LA Valley tops the South. The shocker for South
division last week was Santa Monica College (9-12) ran with #10 College of
the Canyons on Wednesday and leaned into the tape with a 7-point upset,
91-84.
Golden Valley Conference got underway last week. Butte and College of the
Siskiyous share the lead while Lassen is in third due to having a bye.
All three are undefeated in league play. Shasta fell 2 notches to #21
from having the toughest schedule in the state last week. Losses came at
the hands of the teams tied for #3 in the state, Butte and Lassen. Butte
won by 16 while Lassen escaped with a 6-point home victory, 63-57.
Contra Costa met #12 College of Marin on Friday in the North Region Game
of the Week. Marin had the 1-point lead with the game-ending buzzer
looming and Contra Costa looking for a shot in a foreign arena. The ball
found Iman Young on the right side, 10 feet from the bucket. She fired
and sunk the shot with a second remaining and Contra Costa took the
victory, 56-55 and the outright lead in Bay Valley Conference Bay
Division. On Tuesday, Contra Costa also defeated #19 Santa Rosa Junior
College by 20. In Valley Division, #9 San Joaquin Delta College is
keeping pace with leader #11 Sierra College for their rematch next week.
Both schools swept their division competition for the week.
South Coast Conference wrapped up its interdivision schedule. #7 Mt. San
Antonio College had home court advantage versus #6 Cerritos College in the
South Region Game of the Week, but not the win. Cerritos needed the win
to makes its case for a top four seed and a first round by and they got
it, 74-61. Down the road, #8 Los Angeles Trade-Technical College were up
to their necks in unranked Compton Community College trouble, but avoided
the upset, 71-66.
Coast Conference also concluded its interdivision slate on Friday.
Interdivision games count on division records for this conference and #23
Chabot College was the only college that swept the opposite division.
North Division looks to be the power division after going 26-9 with the
South. The majority of the losses were dealt by #16 San Jose City College
(5-1), the only South Division team to do better than 1-5.
Although #18 Santa Ana College is the 3rd highest state-ranked team in
Orange Empire Conference, they hold the outright lead after breaking the
tie with #15 Fullerton College on Wednesday, 74-58. Riverside Community
College tried to drop Santa Ana into a 3-way tie with Fullerton and #13
Orange Coast College, but missed by 9 points.
Pacific Coast Conference started its schedule on Friday. Three teams
share the early lead at 1-0. One of those is not #24 Imperial Valley
College as they found themselves in a mild overtime upset to #25 San Diego
Mesa College, 85-84. Upwardly mobile Southwestern College and perviously
ranked Grossmont College share the conference lead.
Merced College nears a winning record as they took the lead in Central
Valley Conference. They had to play Fresno City College and Reedley
College, both undefeated in CVC beforehand, but not afterwards. Merced
squeaked by Fresno on Wednesday, 55-52, and used the momentum to overcome
Reedley College Saturday night, 87-78.
Antelope Valley College rests atop Foothill Conference standings to begin
this week. College of the Desert came 8 points from raising themselves
into a tie for the lead on Wednesday. Rio Hondo College dropped Chaffey
College on Saturday night, 59-50.
In the North Region Game of the Week, #19 Santa Rosa travels to #12 Marin
for a 6:00 pm Friday game. Santa Rosa would make a strong case for a top
8 seed with a victory. #13 Orange Coast travels to #15 Fullerton on
Wednesday at 7:30 pm to break their tie for second in Orange Empire
Conference in the South Region Game of the Week.
