West Torrance receives No. 8 seed in CIF-SS Open Division
The West Torrance girls basketball team won the 2018 CIF Southern Section Division 1 championship and advanced to the semifinals last season.
This season, West (16-2) will be taking on an even greater challenge in the CIF-SS Open Division.
The Warriors are the No. 8 seed in the eight-team division.
“It’s a huge testament to how hard we’ve worked as a program,” West coach Riki Murakami said. “This is the first time in school history that we’ve been in the Open Division and we want to make sure the girls come out with a level head and make the most of this.”
The Open Division is pool play, instead of single elimination.
West is in Pool A and will open play Saturday against top-seeded Centennial of Corona. They met May 15 with the Huskies winning 81-49.
The second game for the Warriors will be June 2 at Orangewood Academy and the third and final game is June 5 at Windward.
At the end of pool play, the teams with the top records in the two pools will meet June 11 for the championship.
“It is going to be a battle, but we’ve worked hard to be considered one of the best teams in the Southern Section,” Murakami said.
Mary Star (15-0) is the fourth seed in Division 4AA. The Stars, who won the Santa Fe League championship, will host Temple City in the first round Thursday.
Other interesting matchups: North Torrance visits Serra in a Division 1 firstround game. There are six area teams in Division 1, including Rolling Hills Prep, which played just seven games this season. The Huskies went 4-3 and will open with a home game against St. Anthony.
El Segundo (3AA) and Wiseburn Da Vinci (4A) were the local schools that earned an at-large entry into the playoffs.
Thursday Division 4A (wild card)
Rancho Christian at Wiseburn Da Vinci
Division 1
Brentwood at Peninsula Bishop Montgomery at Huntington Beach
St. Anthony at Rolling Hills Prep North Torrance at Serra Redondo at Pasadena
Division 2AA
Mira Costa at Santa Barbara
Orange Lutheran at Leuzinger Crescenta Valley at St. Mary’s Academy
Division 3AA
El Segundo at Pioneer Torrance at Patriot
Division 4AA
Temple City at Mary Star
Saturday
Open Division
West Torrance at Centennial/ Corona
Division 5A
Santa Ana at St. Bernard
Second-round games for Divisions 1-4AA are Saturday.
Note: