Three Long Beach basketball teams qualified for the upcoming CIF State basketball tournament, including the newly-minted CIF-SS Division 3A champion Wilson girls’ basketball team.
Open Division
The Long Beach Poly girls’ basketball team will get a chance to end their season on a more positive note as they earned the No. 7 seed in the Open Division playoffs and will travel to No. 2 Mater Dei on Wednesday evening this week. The Jackrabbits defeated Mater Dei earlier this year but were frustrated with their performance in the CIF-SS Open Division, where they lost to Corona Centennial and Windward.
A victory for the Jackrabbits Wednesday would give them a road game Saturday against the winner of Sierra Canyon and Windward.
Division 1
The St. Anthony Saints boys’ basketball team is looking for a better end to their year as well. After a historic regular season and league championship, the Saints also didn’t like the way they performed in the CIF-SS Open Division field. St. Anthony went 0-3 in pool play and were one of two teams from the CIF-SS Open pool left out of the CIF State Open Division bracket.
The Saints are No. 2 in Division 1 with a great chance to make a deep run in these playoffs. They’d host games on Tuesday (against Damien at 7 p.m.), Thursday, and Saturday if they continue to advance, and would potentially have a round four in their series with St. John Bosco next Tuesday in the SoCal regional championship; the Braves are seeded No. 1 in the bracket.
Division 2
After breezing through most of the Division 3A playoffs and then locking in for tougher games in the semis and the championship, the Wilson girls’ basketball team will have a tougher road in Division 2 for the CIF State playoffs. The Bruins are seeded No. 1 and will host games all the way through to Sacramento if they make it; they open up Tuesday against Mira Costa.
Because the Bruins were the 3A champions of the CIF-SS playoffs, they were moved up to Division 2 for State, where they could see a number of higher-division programs on their way to trying to win the school’s first-ever basketball state championship.
