Bulldogs earn home quarterfinal
Angels Camp team to host NorCal quarterfinals game
LAKE COUNTY >> Bret Harte High School awaits the winner of Wednesday's first-round NorCal Division 5 girls basketball game between the Upper Lake Cougars and Portola Tigers.
The Upper Lake-Portola winner makes a quick turnaround and will travel to Angels Camp, the only incorporated city in Calavares County, for a Thursday quarterfinal-round showdown with the Bulldogs at 7 p.m. The winner of that game advances to Saturday's semifinals at a location to be determined.
All NorCal Division 5 firstround games with the exception of Upper Lake-Portola, which was pushed back a day because of weather-related travel concerns, took place Tuesday night. The higher seed prevailed in six of the seven games played. The lone upset was on the other half of the bracket from Upper LakePortola as No. 12 Lincoln High School of San Francisco beat No. 5 Half Moon Bay 67-60.
In other first-round games, No. 1 Fall River Mills defeated No. 16 Big Valley Christian 75-22, No. 8 Escalon beat No. 9 AIMS College Prep 61-36, No. 4 Washington (San Francisco) knocked off No. 13 Bear River 52-41, No. 3 Bret Harte beat No. 14 Tulare Union 58-38, No. 7 Valley Christian defeated No. 10 Mount Diablo 63-44 and No. 2 Santa Cruz beat Reedley 73-33.
Thursday's quarterfinal matchups have Fall River vs. Escalon and Washington vs. Lincoln on the top half of the bracket and Bret Harte vs. Upper Lake-Portola winner and Santa Cruz vs. Valley Christian on the bottom half.
After Saturday's semifinals at the home sites of the highest surviving seeds, the NorCal
championship game takes place Tuesday.
The NorCal winner plays the SoCal winner Friday, March 10 at 10 a.m. in the state championship game at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.