CCS basketball playoffs: Top storylines
First-round schedule: Boys, girls
Boys: Open Division
Welcome to the West Catholic Athletic League Invitational. OK, it’s not all WCAL. Sacred Heart Prep of the West Bay Athletic League made the eight-team Central Coast Section Open Division when the matchups were unveiled Wednesday, as did two public schools, sixth-seeded Branham and seventh-seeded Half Moon Bay. But the rest are from the WCAL, including eighth-seeded Bellarmine, which went 5-5 in nonleague play (that gets you into the playoffs) and 5-9 in the league. The Open is not a traditional bracket. Hasn’t been since 2022. Instead, the eight teams are split into four-team pools — Nos. 1, 4, 5 and 8 in Pool A and Nos. 2, 3, 6 and 7 in Pool B. Each team plays the others in its pool once. The team that finishes first in the pool advances to the championship game. Last season, No. 2 Archbishop Riordan, No. 3 Sacred Heart Prep and No. 7 Sacred Heart Cathedral tied for first in Pool B, each with 2-1 records. SHC advanced because the teams it beat added up to the fewest seed points (No. 2 Riordan and No. 6 Menlo-Atherton = 8 seed points). Riordan beat No. 3 SHP and No. 6 M-A for nine seed points. SHP beat No. 6 M-A and No. 7 SHC for 13 seed points. SHC went on to defeat Serra in the final. So don’t count out HMB just yet. Of course, a championship by any team not from the WCAL would be historic. Since the CCS added an Open Division in 2013, WCAL schools have captured all 11 titles. Archbishop Mitty, seeded second behind top seed Riordan this season, leads the way with five championships. SHC, which did not make the Open this time around, is second with two titles. St. Ignatius was seeded third in this year’s Open, followed by fourth-seeded Serra and fifth-seeded Sacred Heart Prep. Pool play starts on Friday night and continues Monday and Wednesday. The title game is scheduled for Santa Clara University on Feb. 23. All eight teams in the Open automatically advance to the Northern California regionals. – Darren Sabedra
Girls: Open Division
Archbishop Mitty getting the Open No. 1 seed was a surprise to no one. The Monarchs’ pool consists of Pinewood, Archbishop Riordan and St. Francis. Given Mitty’s dominance this season, anything less than a cakewalk for the No. 1 team in the nation would be stunning. Mitty went 4-0 against Riordan and St. Francis in WCAL play, winning by an average margin of 51 points. The Monarchs are still without McDonald’s All-American Morgan Cheli, sidelined the past four games with an undisclosed injury. Coach Sue Phillips said the UConn commit is day-to-day. … Pinewood drew the fourth seed in the Open, which was not good news for the Los Altos Hills powerhouse. Pinewood has reached the past nine Open championship games. For the streak to continue, the Panthers would have to finish ahead of Mitty in pool play. Good luck with that. A 17-point loss to Priory to end the regular season more than likely bumped Pinewood down a spot, putting the Panthers in Mitty’s pool. … Sacred Heart Cathedral will be the favorites to come out of Pool B, which consists of Priory, St. Ignatius and Los Gatos. SHC has lost only three games this season, twice to Mitty and once to San Ramon Valley, which is the No. 1 seed in the North Coast Section Open Division. … Los Gatos has the second-best overall record in the CCS Open and could make an upset run to the final. The Wildcats’ trio of Nicole Steiner, Ashley Childers and Claire Galbo can go for double digits on any given night. — Nathan Canilao
Boys: Meet the No. 1 seeds
The only team hotter than Riordan in Northern California is Salesian, the top seed in the North Coast Section Open Division. Riordan, the No. 1 seed in the CCS Open, has won 11 in a row since losing to Salesian in an MLK showcase at De La Salle on Jan. 15. The Crusaders went 14-0 in the WCAL, beating their league opponents by an average of nearly 24 points per game. Mitty, playing at home, took Riordan to overtime on Jan. 16, the day after the San Francisco school lost to Salesian. But that was the Crusaders’ one close call in a remarkable league season. They beat Mitty by 20 at Riordan on Feb. 6 behind stars such as 6-foot-8 Saint Mary’s-bound Zion Sensley, sophomore guard Andrew Hilman and four-star junior Jasir Rencher. If Riordan wins the Open title next week, it will join St. Francis (2016) as the only teams to go undefeated in WCAL play and capture the CCS Open in the same season. … Menlo-Atherton, which went winless in three Open games last season, landed the No. 1 seed in Division I. The runner-up in the Peninsula Athletic League’s Bay Division was seeded ahead of Los Gatos, which received the No. 2 seed after capturing the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League’s De Anza Division title on Tuesday with a victory at Palo Alto. … Valley Christian — which had another rough run through the WCAL, finishing seventh with a 2-12 record — was seeded No. 1 in Division II. Maybe the league record is a good sign for the Warriors, who are 10-14 overall. Valley won the D-II title in 2018 after going 2-12 in WCAL play. … Santa Cruz received the top seed in Division III. But the bracket also includes third-seeded Sacred Heart Cathedral, which as noted earlier captured the Open Division championship last season. … If No. 2 seed Menlo School and No. 3 The King’s Academy are to win the Division IV championship, one of them will likely have to beat top-seeded Carmel. – Darren Sabedra
Girls: Meet the No. 1 seeds
Mitty went 24-0 in the regular season, which included a nationally-televised victory over Long Island Lutheran, then the No. 1-ranked team in the country. Mitty is No. 1 now and the heavy favorite to represent Northern California in the Open Division state title game next month in Sacramento. Though there is no specific timetable for Cheli to return, all indications from Phillips and Cheli herself on Tuesday indicated that she will return sometime during the postseason. Mitty is seeking its eighth CCS Open title in the past nine seasons. … Evergreen Valley, the top seed in Division I, finished the regular season 19-5 and won the Blossom Valley Athletic League Mt. Hamilton league title with an undefeated record. Top scorer Ryka Aprameyan has averaged 26.5 points per game this season on 49% shooting. … Monta Vista received the No. 1 seed in Division II. The Matadors have wins over Mills, Santa Clara and Notre Dame-San Jose this season. … The top seed in Division III is Santa Cruz, which went 20-6 this season. Santa Cruz won the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League with a 10-0 record. … Menlo School had some gritty wins over teams such as Menlo-Atherton, Sacred Heart Prep and Los Altos this season, which earned the Knights the top seed in Division IV. Junior Ruiqi Liu will try to lead the Knights to their second CCS title game in three seasons. … Crystal Springs Uplands received the top seed in Division V. The Gryphons had a high strength of schedule and could have a better showing in CCS play than their 8-15 overall record might indicate. — Nathan Canilao
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Buzzer-beaters
Branham’s first-year coach Jason Billie deflects personal compliments at every turn, saying it’s all about his players. But he is making a run for coach of the year. His Bruins captured the outright BVAL Mt. Hamilton Division title on Tuesday and then were seeded sixth in the CCS Open, securing a spot in NorCals by being selected as one of the section’s top eight teams. … The Mills girls won their league title last week and will now take aim at a second consecutive CCS Division III crown. The Vikings were seeded second, behind Santa Cruz. Mills has dedicated this season to Dave Matsu, the program’s longtime coach who died in October. Matsu’s son, Justin, is the coach now. With Dave and Justin on the bench last season, Mills beat Santa Cruz in the final to win the D-III section championship. … St. Francis, which has a storied tradition in basketball, was the only WCAL boys team that did not qualify for the playoffs. The Lancers finished 3-21 overall and 1-13 in the WCAL. Last season, St. Francis won the section’s Division II title. –– Darren Sabedra and Nathan Canilao
