Jets, Eagles, Spartans in women’s draw
- Updated: February 26, 2019
2019 COMMUNITY COLLEGE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
East County Sports staff report
SACRAMENTO (2-26-2019) – Mt. San Jacinto College, the defending CCCAA state women’s basketball titlists, did not draw respect from the seeding committee for this season’s California State championships.
The Eagles (23-6), winners of the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference’s North Division and ranked tied for fifth in Southern California. only receive a No. 7 seed to the Southland Regionals, which
Last season, Mt. San Jacinto was the only Southland school to win a contest at the state championships following the regionals, as the other three schools lost to Northern California squads in the state quarterfinals.
However, the Eagles swept their three contests, defeating College of the Sequoias (65-46), Sierra (71-59) and Merced (81-52). In the regionals, MSJC defeated Pasadena (81-46) and El Camino (81-67),
Three other PCAC schools also gained postseason berths.
Palomar (21-7), the No. 1 seed last season, is No. 11 this go-round and will travel to meet No. 6 Pasadena this weekend. The Comets finished right behind Mt. San Jacinto, flip-flopping places from the previous season.
Meanwhile, the strong second half of the season by MiraCosta (16-8) earned the Spartans their first playoff berth since the school reestablished the program in 2007-08. It was a remarkable turnaround for a program which went completely winless just three seasons ago (0-23 in 2015-16).
Meanwhile, South Division champion Southwestern (16-10) did not advance into the playoff draw, yet runner-up Imperial Valley did, despite barely crawling over the .500 plateau at 14-13 on the final night of the regular season.
For the Lady Arabs, it’s their first state playoff berth since capturing the PCAC in 2006-07, when they nearly upset Chaffey in a tough 56-54 first-round road setback.
The good news for Imperial Valley is their road opponent will be the Cypress Chargers, which has fallen at home to a PCAC school three times in their history. The match-up is slated for Wednesday, with the victor meeting the No. 3 seed East Los Angeles Huskies in Monterey Park on Saturday.
The other top seeds are the No. 1 Moorpark Raiders (28-1), No. 2 L.A. Trade-Tech (26-4), East L.A., and revenge-minded No. 4 Mt. San Antonio (21-8), which was upset in the third round to Irvine Valley last season.
The state Elite 8 and beyond will be hosted by Ventura College.
