Cypress College Drives into Top Five

[ January 31, 2005 Poll ]

Cypress College enters the top five in this week's CCCWBCA Poll, rising from the seventh to fourth ranking. The rest of the fab five stay at last week's positions. Pasadena City College, Antelope Valley College and Santa Rosa Junior College occupy the top three respective spots. San Jose City College is fifth.

Pasadena only plays one state-ranked team for the rest of its regular season schedule and traveled to their gym on Friday in the South Region Game of the Week. Mt. San Antonio College, t hen ranked #4, had split with or swept Pasadena in recent seasons, but Pasadena took control that night in a 76-53 win. The Lancers are up a game at the halfway point of
the South Coast Conference North Division schedule. Compton Community
College rests in third after surviving a 100-97 double-overtime thriller against East Los Angeles College. In South Division, Cerritos College completed their first half at 4-0 after defeating Los Angeles Harbor College by 18 points on Wednesday. El Camino College outlasted Los Angeles Southwest College 65-55 to be a game behind.

Antelope Valley and Chaffey College combined for five wins of more than 20 points to keep their top two spots in Foothill Conference. College of the Desert is a half-game behind Chaffey after defeating San Bernardino Valley College by a dime on Wednesday evening.

Santa Rosa was undeterred in their quest for the Bay Valley Conference Bay Division championship. Two wins by the Cubs kept them two games ahead of Contra Costa College who also went 2-0 on the week. Sierra College fell into a tie with San Joaquin Delta College in the North Region Game of the Week. The Valley Division automatic berth may come down to a tiebreaker as they have split their season series. Delta barely accomplished the feat with a 63-61 home victory.

Orange Empire Conference was midway through their schedule on Wednesday with #7 Cypress and #10 Fullerton colleges tied for the lead at 6-1 with
#6 Riverside Community College a game back. Cypress broke the tie at home on Friday night as they stung Fullerton 74-51. The title could be all but settled this week as Riverside plays both Fullerton and Cypress.
Riverside remains in sixth, but Fullerton dropped a notch to #11.

Ohlone College proved how difficult it is to go through a conference slate unscathed as they hosted San Jose City College on Friday in Coast Conference South Division play. Unranked Ohlone controlled the tempo, but could not get the win, dropping the contest by a 49-48 score. Mission College regained its #20 ranking from earlier in the season despite a
66-48 loss to City College of San Francisco in North Division. A five-point win against Chabot College two nights later swayed the voters.

Shasta College began Golden Valley Conference as the third-ranked squad of the six, but are in the lead and unscathed after the first go-around.
They had a week to prepare for eighth-ranked Lassen College and needed every second of it with the 82-81 home squeaker Saturday night. Butte College and Lassen won by wide margins on Wednesday which kept Butte in second and Lassen in third and the top ten (#9.)

Ventura College had a similar week to San Jose as they were nearly upset on the road at Moorpark College on Saturday. Moorpark had a possible winning trey in the final seconds, but it missed and Ventura survived, 69-67. Moorpark and Santa Barbara City College survived a couple of other games to maintain their tie for second place, two behind Ventura in Western State Conference North Division. Citrus College expanded its South Division lead from two games to three after a 80-60 defeat of second-place Bakersfield on Saturday. Bakersfield broke its tie for second after running by College Canyons three nights before, 90-85.
Canyons regained the tie with a 30-point win over West Los Angeles College.

Central Valley Conference leader, Fresno City College, had an up-and-down week. The Rams upset 12th-ranked Porterville College 71-58, but fell to unranked Taft College 74-70. Merced College drew into a tie for the lead after surviving Modesto Junior College 65-58. Porterville fell to #15, but are a half-game behind the leaders. Reedley College missed grabbing a share of first place with a home loss to College of the Sequoias, 65-63.

Imperial Valley College made it past San Diego Mesa College 50-46 on Wednesday and collected another win against Cuyamaca College on Saturday to lead Pacific Coast Conference. Grossmont College was nearly upset at Palomar College, 52-47, to stay in second. Three colleges are knotted at three games out of the lead in third place.

The games of the week are both on Wednesday night. Antelope Valley College plays a rematch against #13 Chaffey College at home, 7:00 pm.
Chaffey should need the win to grab the Foothill Conference automatic playoff berth. In North Region, Mission College will try to hang onto their state ranking as they travel to #8 Foothill College in a 7:00 pm single-header.

Greg Murphy gregm@altair.csustan.edu