By Greg Murphy
Butte College and two-time defending COA Champion Ventura College
completed the season atop the region seedings this week for the 2001-02
COA California Community College Basketball Championships. The tournament
is the largest in COA Basketball history with 120 colleges vying for the
men's and women's titles. The finals will take place at University of the
Pacific's Spanos Center from March 14-17. Ventura retained their top
ranking in the final COA/CCCWBCA State Poll while Butte followed at #2.
Contra Costa held steady at #3. Los Angeles Valley College broke their
tie for 4th to take the spot for themselves. Cerritos College rose a spot
to #5.
Western State Conference North Division Champion Ventura swept the tough
division with a 69-57 win over #17 Moorpark College to close out the
regular season. Cuesta College traveled to #22 Santa Barbara City College
on the same night to clinch a home opener for the playoffs with a 55-43
score. Wednesday was the day for the COA South Region Game of the Week.
LA Valley needed the win over #13 College of the Canyons to clinch WSC
South Division and clinch a top four seeding and they did exactly that,
73-63, on their home court.
Butte ended the regular season in style on Saturday with a 73-45 win over
#7 Lassen College. Third place was on the line in Golden Valley
Conference at #21 Shasta College as they took on College of the Siskiyous.
Shasta clinched the spot 67-58.
Solano Community College nearly pulled off an upset of Contra Costa
College in Bay Valley Conference's Bay Division, 51-49, to close out their
regular season. Solano fell into a tie for second with #16 College of
Marin. #24 Santa Rosa Junior College kept Marin from finishing alone in
2nd place with a 67-65 score on Tuesday. For Valley Division, Yuba
College surprised the division champion, #11 Sierra College, with a 67-65
road upset on Friday. Sierra's loss was San Joaquin Delta College's gain
as they stepped into a co-championship with a win of their own.
#9 Los Angeles Trade-Technical College jumped into the top 10 with a 60-57
overtime win over #6 Mt. San Antonio College for a share of the South
Coast Conference North Division title. Los Angeles Southwest College
played Cerritos with similar hopes in the SCC South, but Cerritos clinched
the outright championship with a 22-point victory. Long Beach City
College clinched a spot in the playoffs after defeating El Camino College
64-58.
Orange Empire Conference was rated the strongest conference in the South
Region despite not having any teams in the top four seeds. #8 Santa Ana
College won the championship, but not before dropping a game with #15
Orange Coast College on Friday, 63-55. Cypress enjoyed its own upset that
night as they dropped #20 Fullerton College into a tie for 2nd with Orange
Coast by a single point.
The COA North Region Game of the Week would either give Chabot the Coast
Conference North Division championship or give Foothill College a share.
Foothill arose in their home court and grabbed their piece of the title,
44-36. In South Division, #12 San Jose City College won their
championship by a whopping seven games over College of San Mateo.
Palomar College nearly caused some trouble for #19 San Diego Mesa College
on Wednesday, but Mesa won 64-57. The victory game Mesa the Pacific Coast
Conference championship. #25 Imperial Valley College swept the week to
take second.
Merced College wound up with the Central Valley Conference trophy after
College of the Sequoias overcame Reedley College 65-63 on the final day of
the season. Reedley's consolation was an automatic bid for the playoffs.
The win clinched 3rd for Sequoias.
Foothill is the only conference in the state to run a Shaughnessy
Tournament to determine who would get the 2nd automatic qualifier behind
champion Rio Hondo College. Chaffey College was top seed and the
tournament champion. The title game saw them win big over Cerro Coso
College, 69-48.
