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Mt. San
Antonio and Contra Costa Named #1 Region Seeds
[ Poll,
Week of 2/23/04 ]
The regular season has ended
and the seedings for the North and South regions have been announced. Mt. San
Antonio College and Contra Costa College were named the highest seed in their
regions by the seeding committees and will have the home-court advantage throughout
the regionals. Both regions have two brackets with each bracket's survivor meeting
in the COA Basketball Championships presented by Magali Farms, March 12-13,
at University of San Diego's Jenny Craig Pavilion. The #2 seeds, who get home-court
in the second brackets, are Reedley College in the North and Ventura College
down South.
Although the game was not
a #1 vs. #2 like the first meeting, the #1 Mt. San Antonio-#3 Pasadena game
was just as thrilling. Mt. San Antonio earned the South Coast Conference North
Division championship with a 78-76 victory. The South Division crown was decided
on the final day of conference play. #14 Cerritos College outlasted El Camino
College 58-42.
#2 Ventura only needed to
split their week to get the Western State Conference North Division title, but
won both games to be the only South Region team to go undefeated in their conference.
Santa Monica College upset Los Angeles Valley College on the last day of the
season, 75-61, to give #6 College of the Canyons the outright South Division
championship. L.A. Valley dropped three positions to #18.
Bay Valley Conference played
to a couple of shared championships the hard way. #7 Sierra College and #9 San
Joaquin Delta College both thought they had blown their share of Valley Division
after Tuesday losses until they found out that the other school had been upset
as well. Delta still had to get by Sacramento City College on Friday and did
so, 68-56. #4 Contra Costa College and #12 Santa Rosa College split their head-to-head
and swept the rest to share the Bay Division title.
Reedley got the two wins
it needed in Central Valley Conference action last week to take the Central
Valley Conference plaque and broke into the top five in the State Poll. Merced
College finished a game behind. College of the Sequoias took third by virtue
of an earlier upset of Merced.
Chaffey College placed its
hopes on Antelope Valley College being upset to share the Foothill Conference
crown, but it did not come to pass. #10 Antelope Valley swept the week and took
the title by a game. San Bernardino Valley College came on strong late in the
season to nab third place.
#11 Butte College was the
only North Region team to be victorious in all games on their conference schedule.
The Roadrunners were 12-0 in Golden Valley Conference. Lassen College improved
in the second half to share the runner-up spot with Shasta College. College
of the Siskiyous made it a nailbiter for Shasta on Saturday, playing Shasta
to a single-point, 62-61.
Orange Empire Conference
was rated the toughest conference in South Region with its champion being #13
Fullerton College. A three-way tie was possible, but Fullerton took its final
game into the win column over the defending state champion, Orange Coast College.
#15 Saddleback College and #19 Cypress College share second place.
City College of San Francisco
gave its all in up-ending Foothill College 75-63. Foothill defeated Chabot on
Friday to keep its 1-game lead over CCSF and be the outright champions of Coast
Conference North Division. Ohlone College and San Jose CIty College had a game
and a bye last week. Both won their games to share the South Division title.
Imperial Valley College
needed a win over Palomar College to get a share of the Pacific Coast Conference
crown and the automatic qualifying spot on Saturday. By a score of 56-49, that
is exactly what happened. Southwestern College had already clinched third place.
Sixteen teams in each region
have been seeded in the 2003-2004 COA champinships. The first round of regionals
take place this Friday. Regionals conclude a week from Saturday with the four
bracket champions going to San Diego March 12. With the last five champions
and the current top three colleges coming from the South Region, the streak
looks to be extended. But, shall the north rise again?
Greg Murphy gregm@altair.csustan.edu
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