Santa Rosa Junior College Tops North Region Poll

[ November 22, 2004 Poll ]

The North Region Poll reflects last week's state poll as Santa Rosa Junior College ascends to the top. Mt. San Antonio College maintains a slim lead on the South side as well as being the top-ranked team statewide.

Pasadena City College is second-ranked in both polls. Santa Rosa follows in third. Antelope Valley College and idle Lassen College rise one position to their respective fourth and fifth ranks.

Riverside Community College hosted Pasadena on Friday evening in the South Region Game of the Week. The seventh-ranked Tigers couldn't overcome the sophomore-laden Lancers, 82-57. Surprisingly, Riverside gained a notch in the State Poll, but dropped one in the Region. Mt. San Antonio joined Pasadena at 4-0 on the same night after a lopsided win with visitor Long Beach City College.

Santa Rosa filled a hole in their schedule with Skagit Valley City College, an NWAACC final four powerhouse from Washington. Santa Rosa, having had played a tournament, had their team in form quicker than Skagit Valley who had only played Modesto Junior College the prior night. Skagit Valley was down early 20-2 and were down by 24 at halftime. In the second half, Skagit Valley got their court legs for a competitive 69-60 win for our Bear Cubs.

The tournament of the Week was hosted by Glendale Community College.
Ventura College often gets bit in its first tournament and this season was no different. Losses to unranked L.A. Southwest (55-48) and #18 Fullerton (62-48) sent them home a day early and dropped their ranking from #4 to #16. Fullerton met Ventura after being nipped by Antelope Valley, 61-58.

That left Antelope Valley in a bracket with three unranked teams. L.A.
Southwest College was dropped 63-49 leaving the host as the last obstacle.
Glendale gave it their best effort, tying the Mauraders in regulation, but Antelope Valley pushed to the title in overtime, 73-68. Fullerton made their way by San Diego Mesa for the consolation championship and a ranking of 14th. The score was Cerritos 69, L.A. Southwest 50 in the third-place match.

In the first round of Santa Barbara City College's tournament, one ranked team survived while another team was upset. #10 L.A. Valley College defeated then-winless Golden West, 65-59, but #15 Chaffey was pipped by Irvine Valley, 75-74. Most of the games came down to the final minute.

Three of the four semifinal games did with L.A. Valley moving to the championship game along with Irvine Valley while Chaffey advanced to the consolation final to meet Golden West. L.A downed Irvine 59-51 to take the title. The Monarchs improved their ranking to #7. Orange Coast College took third place over the host college. Chaffey raced to the consolation title with a 14-point win and dropped to #17.

The only tournament in North Region was at Butte College. American River started off the festivities with a 12-point upset victory over #16 Merced.

Butte met ARC in the championship after avoiding their own upset at the hands of Yuba, 81-76. Merced played strong to take third by a score of 83-52. Butte extended its undefeated season (3-0) with a 65-54 triumph versus American River.

In the North Region Game of the Week on Friday, City College of San Francisco challenged the #12 San Jose City College Panthers, maintaining their top 15 regional ranking. The final was a 76-67 win for SJCC who broke into the State top 10.

The North Game of the Week will be on Tuesday with #11 San Joaquin Delta College attempting to follow San Jose into the top ten at #3 Santa Rosa. Cerritos College has a shot at getting back into the State Rankings at #12 Cypress College, Wednesday at 7:00 pm.

The Tournament of the Week is Friday through Sunday at Ventura College.
The 16th-ranked Pirates will host #1 Mt. San Antonio, #5 Lassen, #9 San Jose, plus regionally-ranked Contra Costa College.

Greg Murphy gregm@altair.csustan.edu