Santa Rosa Retakes North Region

[ January 17, 2005 Poll ]

In CCCWBCA voting, Santa Rosa Junior College regains the top of the North Region Poll, knocking Lassen College down to second. In the State Poll, Santa Rosa falls out of the top five while Lassen reenters at #3. Pasadena City College continues its run at #1. Antelope Valley College holds the runner-up position. Mt. San Antonio College is fourth. Riverside Community College falls to fifth.

South Coast Conference started the intradivision portion of their schedule last week. Pasadena had a couple of easy wins to keep their undefeated season alive at 18-0. El Camino College upset Mt. San Antonio on the road, 55-47 in an interdivision game. El Camino then dropped contests to Cerritos College and Ventura College to take a slight drop to #19. Cerritos missed a state ranking by dropping a, 82-71 overtime game on Wednesday to Compton Community College.

College of the Desert continued to surprise in leading Foothill Conference by a half game over Antelope Valley. They play each other this weekend.
Chaffey College looms just outside the leaders with a 10-point victory over San Bernardino Valley College. Antelope Valley and Desert both defeated Cerro Coso College.

Lassen and Shasta College won their first two games in Golden Valley Conference play to share first-place. Lassen collected a forfeit from Feather River College before traveling to Redwoods for a 72-57 win.
Shasta went into overtime with Butte College with the winner sharing the conference lead. Shasta got a 62-58 home triumph.

Orange Empire Conference nearly had a five-way tie for the conference title last season and it is just as close after the first four games this season. Fullerton, Cypress, Irvine Valley and Golden West colleges are tied for the lead at 3-1. Riverside and Orange Coast became tied a game behind the leading quartet after Riverside managed a 62-51 home win over the Pirates. Fullerton held the solo lead after defeating OCC on Wednesday, 61-43, in the South Region Game of the Week. The standings knot was tied by Golden West with their upset of Fullerton two nights later in Huntington Beach. Cypress upended Riverside on Wednesday 81-74 in their quest for a top four region seed.

In Tuesday play of Bay Valley Conference Bay Division, Santa Rosa took a half-game lead thanks to Contra Costa College being idle combined with a 31-point win versus Diablo Valley College. Friday was Santa Rosa's turn to have a bye, allowing Contra Costa to draw even after defeating Mendocino 64-50. On the Valley side, Sacramento City College held a brief lead after their Cosumnes River matchup. Sierra College snatched it away when they moved to 3-0 by downing Sacramento 69-41 at home.

Coast Conference wrapped up their interdivisional slate by matching up the two top teams at San Jose City College on Saturday in the North Region game of the week. San Jose had defeated Foothill for the third time in as many tries, 81-72, moving the Jaguars ahead of the Owls in the latest polls. Mission College sports the best record for the north at 14-3.

State-unranked Fresno City College continued it's lossless run in Central Valley Conference last week, collecting wins over Merced and Modesto Junior colleges. Merced provided the biggest challenge, going down 70-61. Reedley and Porterville are a game and a half behind, each with a loss and a bye in their past.

After a week of captain-led practices at Santa Barbara City College while US 101 was closed, the Vaqueros traveled to Moorpark College and upset the Raiders. Ventura and Santa Barbara share the North Division lead of Western State Conference at 3-0. Citrus College leads South Division at 4-0 with wins over Los Angeles Valley College, 49-43, and 70-67 against Santa Monica. College of the Canyons is a half-game back at 3-0 and higher ranked, #16 vs. #20.

Pacific Coast Conference inaugurated their 2005 league schedule on Saturday. Scores were Grossmont College 65, Southwestern College 52; Imperial Valley College 61-38 over Palomar, and San Diego Mesa winning on the road at Cuyamaca College by a score of 81-26. The winners share first place at 1-0.

This week's Games of the Week will put a college into a confortable lead in their divisions. Santa Rosa and Contra Costa break their tie in BVC North at Contra Costa on Tuesday at 6:00 pm. In South Region, Canyons will attempt to take Citrus' WSC South Division lead as they host on Saturday at 7:30 pm.

Greg Murphy gregm@altair.csustan.edu