|
Comets
Sighted Atop De Anza Tournament, Re-enters Top Five
[ Poll,
Week of 1/5/04 ]
De Anza and Foothill Colleges
co-host the second of two 16-team events of the season, the De Anza Tournament.
Participants included two of the top three teams of the North Region, #1 Merced
College and #3 Contra Costa College. The Contra Costa Comets survived a scare
by Foothill in the quarterfinals to meet Merced for the championship. The final
score was CCC 67, Merced 66. Contra Costa took Merced's #5 state ranking, but
Merced kept its #1 spot in region voting.
Sierra College traveled
to Diablo Valley College for its only game of the previous two weeks and won
76-55. Sierra maintained its #4 position in COA, but dropped to #3 in the North.
In South Region, #2 Ventura College also had a non-tournament game, hosting
Saddleback College for the South Region Game of the Week. Saddleback kept it
close early, but Ventura adjusted their defense and won 74-50 to stay #2.
Fullerton College met #1
Mt. San Antonio College in the finals of its own tournament. Mt. San Antonio
was challenged, but drove home with the trophy and their continued #1 ranking
with a 58-47 victory. Chaffey pulled off a couple of upsets in mid-December,
but dropped the 3rd-place game to Santa Barbara CIty College, 72-64.
With five top-15 teams in
the Tournament of the Week, the San Jose City College Lady Jags Tourney, any
team would feel fortunate to win, especially with Pasadena City College's undefeated
record on the line. PCC opened with San Joaquin Delta College and won by a bucket,
65-63. Fresno City College provided more problems in the semifinal, but Pasadena
escaped 63-56. That set up a championship game between Pasadena and College
of the Canyons who nearly defeated Mt. SAC in early November. The score was
71-67 and Pasadena did it again. They moved to a point outside of second place
in state rankings, but rose to second in the region. Santa Rosa Junior College
took Fresno for third place, 68-55, while Delta
snared the consolation title.
Before the Ventura game,
Saddleback won the championship of the Grossmont College Tournament which not
only kept them from dropping in the state poll, but moved up a notch to #11.
Compton Community College dropped a first-round game to Saddleback, but won
the final two rounds to take the consolation side of the bracket. Host Grossmont
was second while L.A.
Harbor neared .500 with a win in the third-place contest.
Cerro Coso College Tournament
had a great first round. Imperial Valley College and Cerro Coso won by eight
and seven points, respectively. However, the final round was not as close as
Imperial Valley defeated their host 54-33 for the title and Citrus College took
third with a 33-point win over L.A. Pierce College.
In the North Region Game
of the Week, Lassen College met Butte College to open Golden Valley Conference
play. Butte made its argument for a home playoff game after an 84-62 win. Butte
left the bubble and snagged the #7 region placement.
North Region Game of the
Week:
On Wednesday, January 7, two of the three Central Valley Conference powerhouses
meet. #15 Fresno City College tip-offs at #6 Merced College. Call Merced for
the time.
South Region Game of the
Week:
On the same night, #11 Saddleback travels to #17 Irvine Valley College in an
important early contest in Orange Empire Conference play. They are set for 7:30pm.
Greg Murphy gregm@altair.csustan.edu
|
