Section brackets to be released with northern area uncertain
Today marks the end of the regular season for Lodi area high school boys and girls basketball teams, plus boys and girls soccer teams. Then on Thursday, the playoff fun begins. The Sac-Joaquin Section will release boys and girls basketball playoff bracket through selection show. The show can be viewed through the High School Sports Network. According to the section’s Twitter account posted on Sunday, the show is scheduled to start Thursday at 4:30 p.m.
Local boys hoops teams that should advance to the playoffs are Liberty Ranch, Elliot Christian and Lodi Academy. Entering its Sierra Valley Conference finale at home against El Dorado on Tuesday, Liberty Ranch has an 8-1 record in conference and 19-7. Elliot Christian is 13-0 in the Central California Athletic Alliance and 224. Lodi Academy, which closes out Mountain Valley League action at Ben Holt College Prep Academy tonight, is 7-6 in the MVL and 11-11 overall.
On the girls’ basketball side, Lodi is the lone squad. Hosting Tri-City Athletic League and cross-town rival Tokay at The Inferno Tuesday night, the Flames are 5-2 in the TCAL and 18-7.
According to Will DeBoard, the section’s director of communications, the boys and girls’ soccer playoff brackets would be released on Friday.
Lodi area boys teams expected to advance are Tokay, Lodi, Galt and Liberty Ranch. Taking on Lodi in the TCAL finale at the Grape Bowl on Tuesday, Tokay has already clinched a share of the TCAL title, the first league title for the program in 20 years. The Tigers are 7-1-1 in the TCAL and 9-3-2 overall. Lodi needed a win over Tokay to improves its chances. The Flames are 5-3-1 in the TCAL for third place, 7-6-1. West is in fourth place in league at 5-4.
Galt has also earned back-to-back SVC titles, as this year’s team has an 8-0-2 mark in conference and 16-0-2 overall. Liberty Ranch took second place in the SVC at 4-1-4, and 11-4-6.
For girls soccer, Lodi is one of two area teams in the playoffs. Taking on Tokay at the Grape Bowl this afternoon, Lodi has already clinched the TCAL title at 7-0-2 and 14-4-2. Liberty Ranch has won the SVC crown at 9-0 and 17-0-3. The Hawks closed out their regular season hosting Cordova on Tuesday.
There’s a chance that one or some of the area soccer teams — in particular Galt and Liberty Ranch — could be playing teams from the Yuba City-Marysville area, which is part of the section, in the playoffs.
Over the weekend, the city of Oroville, south of the Yuba-Sutter area, and surrounding cities and towns were evacuated due to concerns of the emergency spillway of the Oroville Dam. There were an estimated 200,000 people who were forced to evacuate their residences.
State and regional law enforcement lifted the mandatory evacuation placed on Tuesday afternoon. According to reports, the water level has dropped off.
Weather forecasters are calling for a halfinch to three-quarters rain on Thursday. But rainstorms are expected to hit the region again late Sunday night, and continue for most of next week.
According to DeBoard, the section is in the “holding steady and see what happens” mode. All of the Marysville High winter sports teams were forced to cancel Golden Empire League games this week because of the evacuations. The North Section, located north of Yuba City through the Chico area, also canceled boys and girls basketball league games, plus soccer contests because of the evacuations.
“We’ve talked about it lot,” said DeBoard, referring with section officials. “We will wait and see what happens over the next several days.”
On Friday and Saturday, Lodi, Tokay, plus Galt and Liberty Ranch, will begin post-season action in wrestling at the section’s divisional tournaments. Lodi and Tokay make the short trek to Turlock to compete at the Division I-AA tourney at Pitman High. Galt and Liberty Ranch will be at the D-IV tourney at Union Mine High.
The Tokay and Lodi girls wrestling teams, along with individuals from Galt and Liberty Ranch, will also be in action on Friday and Saturday. They will be competing at the section’s Girls Wrestling Regional Tournament at McNair High.
The link to the High School Sports Network for the boys and girls basketball playoff brackets is nfhsnetwork.com/associations/cifsjs.