SoCalHoops High School News

CIF-SS Playoff Boys' Wild Card Games:
Div. I-AA *Revised*--(Feb. 12, 2002)

No sooner did we post the D-IAA matchups and we learned that the CIF-SS had rearranged the I-AA bracket slightly, but significantly.   Game "A" was formerly Paramount v. Rialto @ Rialto.  The winner was slated to play Ayala, the Sierra League champion, on Friday night at Ayala.

Well, evidently someone figured out that rather than give Alhambra a first round game against Eisenhower, that it made sense to match Rialto and Ayala in the first round directly, and so the new wild card "A" game has Paramount @ Alhambra, and the winner gets Eisenhower in the first round....lucky winner....and a one-way ticket out of the playoffs.  Oh well, it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, and you never know, maybe half the Eisenhower team will get stuck in traffic and the winner of the wild card will get lucky...

Game A: Paramount @ Alhambra

Paramount finished as an at-large entry from the San Gabriel Valley League, the No. 6 finisher in the league with an overall record of 14-13.  Alhambra comes in as the No. 4 selection from the Almont League with a record of 12-13.  Here are the rosters for these two teams:

Paramount didn't submit their complete record, or if they did, the CIF-SS didn't reproduce it, so we can't tell you who they beat and who they lost to without going on a full-blown search of the archives.  If you're a coach from Rialto, perhaps your time can be best spent doing a "Search SoCalHoops" to look for those game results, but for the casual fan, well, who has the time?  Alhambra did submit both a schedule and roster, so we know that they've beaten South Pasadena, El Monte, El Rancho, San Marino, Derritos, Cathedral, St. Bernard, Keppel (twice), and San Gabriel (twice).  In short, all teams with the exception of one or two, who either didn't make the playoffs, or who struggled all season.  Alhambra lost to Wilson, Schurr, Northview, Gabrielino, Warren, La Canada, La Salle, Hoover, Montebello, Bell Gardens, and San Gabriel.  In short, they mostly lost to the better teams they played.

Game B--Santa Monica @ Arcadia

Santa Monica enters the playoffs as an at-large entry from the Bay League, the No. 5 team from that league with a record of 13-13 overall.   Arcadia will get the home court advantage, also an at-large entry from the Pacific League, the No. 6 team from that league with an overall record of 12-14.

Notable wins for Santa Monica have included a 51 point shellacking over Salesian early in the season, wins over Leuzinger, Granada Hills, Grant, Saugus, Peninsula (they split in league), Morningside (twice, also league), while notable losses have included a 43-33 loss to Santa Barbara, a 51-44 loss to Dos Pueblos (when DP had Steve Greybill), Inglewood (with and without DeAngelo Collins), and they split a pair with Mira Costa.  Pablo Dresie is one player to watch for and Brett DeAngelis is also a scoring threat.   For Arcadia, Brent Dohling is the leading scorer, and the Apaches have notably beaten Montclair, Gabrielino, Montebello (1st in Almont League), Cerritos, Duarte, Nikiski (Alaska), South Pasadena, Campbell Hall, while they've lost to predictably better and deeper teams like Pasadena, Crescenta Valley, and Muir, not to mention Hoover twice in league, and Hoover didn't qualify at all. 

The winner gets Esperanza, the Sunset League's No. 1 team, on Friday night @ Esperanza.

Game C--Fountain Valley @ Dana Hills

Fountain Valley comes into the game as an at-large entry from the Sunset League, tied at No. 3 (meaning they were really No. 4 for playoff purposes) with an overall record of 13-14.   The game will be played at Dana Hills, which finished 6th in the South Coast League and so obviously they are also an "at-large" entry, with a record of 13-13.  

Interestingly, Dana Hills either didn't submit a media sheet or it got lost in the shuffle, so in order to avoid any unfair surprise, or rather to put everyone on the same footing, we're not going to give rosters, at least not complete ones, for this contest.  Besides, if Dana Hills didn't have time to submit one, why should we spend our time hunting around for a roster for them?   All we can say is that Dana Hills ought to key in on Kevin Edmunds (6'-6" Sr. F), who is clearly one of the best players on his squad, a team which beat Los Alamitos (twice) but which inexplicably lost to Laguna Hills 38-33....Hey, these are high school kids, after all and anything can happen.   But Fountain Valley has also beaten Esperanza (they split), Edison, Marina (another split) Rancho Bernardo from San Diego, Mojave from Vegas, Foothill from Vegas, L A Jordan, and a holst of other teams. Of course they also lost to Rialto, Mayfair, Morningside, LA Fremont (by 38 points) and Inglewood (by only 15).... An all-OC matchup. Should be fun.

The winner gets Etiwanda, the No. 1 team from the Mt. Baldy League on Friday.

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