first round socal division 1, boys and girls March 8, 2000

Here's what we know happened tonight in Divison I in the Boys and Girls brackets, respectively, in the SoCal CIF State Regional Tournament. Only details on the Westchester v. Ayala game for now. . . the rest of the details to follow tomorrow.

Westchester 74, Ayala 56-- The host comets(25-6) were led by sophomore Keith Everage's 20 points as they pulled away from Chino Hills Ayala to claim a 74-56 victory in a Division 1 State First round playoff game at Loyola Marymount. Westchester got out of the gate early as their height advantage limited the Bulldogs (28-6) to only 9 points in the first 11 minutes of the game. Ayala went into halftime trailing by 13 and got down by as many as 18 at 49-31 with 6:54 remaining in the third quarter. However they pulled to within eight midway thry the fourth quarter behind two three pointers by Marc McCoy. Chris Pacana had an off game for Ayala, finishing with only 9 points on 2 of 14 shooting. McCoy finished with 16 for the bulldogs while DJ Lucas chipped in with 9 before fouling out and Marcel Burke had 8. The comets got 14 points from sophomore Brandon Heath, 13 points from Jason Breland and 11 from 7'-0" junior Chad Bell; spohomore Jason McKinney added 8 points and some good defense down the stretch for Westchester. The comets move on to Friday's second round against Mater Dei.

Based on these wins, here's what the D-I Bracket looks like. Westchester will play Mater Dei, who will host the game, possibly at Ocean View or at the Bren Center (we'd bet on the latter, given the crowds that can be anticipated for this one), while Poly, with the worst travel priority of any No. 2 seed in recent memory, travels from Carlsbad tonight, stops in for about 48 hours, and then travels about 250 miles north to Clovis, where they'll take on the Eagles, a team the Jackrabbits beat in the BCW "Battle of the Central Valley."

Southern California D-I State Regionals First round games March 8, @ Home Schools* 7:30 p.m.			SoCal Round II March 10 @ Home Schools* 7:30 p.m.	SoCal Regional Finals March 11 Great Western Forum 8:15 p.m.	State Finals March 18
Crenshaw (Los Angeles) 66	@	*Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 85	Westchester @ Mater Dei		@Arco Arena 8:00 p.m. Saturday 3/18
Ayala (Chino Hills) 56	@	*Westchester (Los Angeles) 74
Simi Valley (Simi Valley) 64	@	*Clovis West (Clovis) 100	Long Beach Poly @ Clovis West
Poly Long Beach 50	@	*Carlsbad (San Diego) 43

Southern California D-I State Regionals First round games March 8, @ Home Schools* 7:30 p.m.			SoCal Round II March 10 @ Home Schools* 7:30 p.m.	SoCal Regional Finals March 11 Great Western Forum 6:30 p.m.	State Finals March 18
Troy (Fullerton) 40	@	*Narbonne (Harbor City, LA) 56	LB Wilson @ Narbonne		@Arco Arena 6:00 p.m. Saturday 3/18
Wilson (Long Beach) 53	@	*Mt. Carmel (San Diego) 47
Lynwood (Lynwood) 54	@	*JW North (Riverside) 49	Lynwood @ Hanford
Palisades (LA) 41	@	*Hanford (Hanford) 66