Mt. San Antonio continues its stay at #1

[ Poll, Week of 2/16/04 ]

In the final region polls of the 2003-04 season, Mt. San Antonio College and Contra Costa College are tops in South and North, respectively. In state voting, Mt. San Antonio continues its stay at #1. Ventura College eked out second place over #3 Pasadena City College. Contra Costa is the highest-ranked northern team at fourth. Sierra fell to #5.

The final state poll is next week. Seedings will be released Monday evening. This season, there will be 16 teams seeded into 8-team brackets in each region. Only conference or division champions get automatic qualifying spots. The four bracket survivors qualify for the COA Championships at Univerisity of San Diego's Jenny Craig Pavilion, March 12-13.

Pasadena's drop in the poll could be explained by a tough evening with Compton Community College last Friday. The Lancers escaped with a 66-59 win. Mt. San Antonio had a bye and an easy victory in its week. Cerritos also struggled with Los Angeles Harbor College Friday night, but won by 12 to maintain its South Division lead.

Division leader troubles continued with Los Angeles Valley College and Bakersfield College in Western State Conference South Division. Despite having ten less wins on the season, the Renegades came ten points from upsetting #15 L.A. Valley. Oxnard College gave Ventura a scare in North Division in the first round, but Ventura played to their ranking in a 72-46 win. In the South Region Game of the Week, Moorpark College took the lead over Cuesta College with 9 seconds left, fell behind with 3 seconds left and won the game at the buzzer. The final score was 69-68 to solidify Moorpark's bid for the playoffs.

Sierra dropped to #5 after San Joaquin Delta College drew them into a tie for the Bay Valley Conference Valley Division lead Friday night, 69-57. Delta moved into the top ten with a #9 ranking. Contra Costa College pulled the same magic at Santa Rosa Junior College on the same night, 60-58, to split their Bay Division games against each other and share the lead.

The North Region Game of the Week could determine the Central Valley Conference champion between Reedley and Merced colleges. The issue was not settled until a period of overtime had been played, the scoreboord reading Reedley 57, Merced 56. The two squads swapped positions in the state poll with Merced at #8 and Reedley climbing to #6. Porterville College defeated College of the Sequoias, 74-68, to rise to share third place.

San Bernardino Valley College showed that their recent play was not a fluke as they upset Antelope Valley College, 81-76, last Saturday. AVC managed to stay ranked in the top ten as they hit the #10 spot on the nose. Chaffey College is half a game back after defeating Rio Hondo College and Mt. San Jacinto College while SBVC is a full game behind.

Butte College is the only team to have clinched a playoff seed after sweeping Golden Valley Conference to date. Lassen College has a shot at improving its seeding after closing in on Shasta College for second place with a big 89-52 score on Saturday.

Orange Empire Conference continues to be a quagmire as all teams have lost at least four times in the title race. Golden West College upset Cypress College (66-57) and Riverside Community College (64-56) while Cypress was upset a second time by Saddleback to cause Fullerton and Riverside to tie for the lead with Cypress a half-game back. Saddleback is a full-game back to stay alive in the race. Voters rank Fullerton the highest at #14. Cypress fell two spots to #18 with Riverside at #19 and Saddleback at #20.

De Anza College upset state-ranked City College of San Francisco, 71-62, to give district-rival Foothill College at least a share of the Coast Conference North Division championship. CCSF is #17 in this week's poll. For South Division, Ohlone College and San Jose City College continue to share the lead after a pair of wins a piece.

The champion of Pacific Coast Conference might be the only team to get a seeding this season. Imperial Valley College kept pace with Palomar
College to keep its playoff hopes alive. Palomar is up by a game with
two remaining after both took both of last week's games into the W column.

North Region Game of the Week:
CCSF makes its last gasp for a portion of the Coast Conference Division championship as they play Foothill at home, 5:30 pm, Wednesday, February 18.

South Region Game of the Week:
Mt. San Antonio College will attempt to protect its hold on the top spot as #3 Pasadena City College tries to split yet another head-to-head with their South Coast Conference North Division rivals and share the division title. Mt. San Antonio hosts the Wednesday, February 18, 5:30pm game.

Greg Murphy gregm@altair.csustan.edu