BASKETBALL: Imperial Valley teams seeded 1-2-3 in CIF Playoffs
For the first time in the history of the CIF San Diego Section basketball divisional playoffs, three Southeastern Conference teams in the same division have been seeded one-two-three for the playoffs that begin this week.
The three teams to accomplish the feat will compete in the CIF Division IV girls bracket with the Palo Verde High School Yellow Jackets, with basically the same squad as last year’s CIF D-V champions, as the top seed.
In 2023 Palo Verde repeated as Desert League champions by pulling off a 54-53 win over the second place Vincent Memorial Catholic High Scots on a buzzer-beating shot by junior forward Charlotte Dagnino last Friday night, February
10, in Blythe. The Vincent Scots received CIF’s D-IV third seed.
Sandwiched in between Palo Verde and Vincent Memorial are the Imperial Valley League’s Central Spartans, who picked up the second seed after playing a roller-coaster season.
“That is pretty insane that we are all up there, and I like where we are,” Central Coach Jason McClain said. ”I like our chances … we’re home until we’re out and we just have to handle business. We’re trying to make some noise.”
Central has had their moments this season, including a 46-42 loss to Palo Verde that cost them the CIF D-IV’s top seed, while struggling at other times with a loaded schedule, including two IVL D-I foes in Imperial and Holtville high schools, both of which are headed to the D-I playoffs.
“I’ll take where they put us ... I’ll take the second,” McClain said. “We had a strong preseason with D-II and D-III’s and then had to face to D-I schools (so) we definitely took the hard route.”
“We’ve been up and down, but on the positive side, we don’t think that we’ve peaked yet,” McClain said. “and we’re hoping this second season is when we do.”
To demonstrate the dominance of local teams in girls hoops in 2023, the Calipatria High Hornets girls were awarded the seventh-seed in the D-IV playoffs, making it four of the top seven teams in D-IV from the Southeastern Conference.
In fact, in another possible first for the Southeastern Conference, all nine girls teams made the CIF playoffs, led by an unprecedented two teams in the Division I playoffs, which includes the second-seeded Imperial Tigers and the ninthseed Holtville Vikings.
Wednesday, February 15, D-I Imperial will have a bye while Holtville travels to meet the eighth-seeded San Marcos High School. Locally in D-IV, the Central Spartans will host fifteenth-seeded Hilltop High of Chula Vista, Vincent Memorial will meet Escondido High, and the Calipatria Hornets welcome the tenth-seeded Santa Fe Christian High School in Calipatria.
In Division III action, the sixth-seeded Calexico High Bulldogs will host the tenth-seed, Chula Vista High, while the fifteenth-seeded Brawley High Wildcats travel to
El Cajon to meet the second-seeded Granite Hills High School.
The Southeastern Conference’s boys basketball teams also represented well in picking up CIF playoff berths with seven-of-nine schools headed to their respective divisional playoffs.
“Everything went as he rankings were … I tell the teams that usually the only switch is when you have a first round game against someone in your conference,” Imperial High Coach and CIF Southern Conference boys basketball representative, David Milan, said.
Ironically, one of the teams that went offscript was Milan’s own Tigers, who are seeded third in the Division IV playoffs, two spots behind the top-seeded Vincent Memorial Scots, whom Imperial beat twice to win the Desert League boys championship.
“We were sitting fourth on Maxpreps.com and then last night we went to three and Vincent went to two,” Milan said. “I thought Vincent would hop over Clairemont because they beat them head-to-head in a nonleague game, and so they got the top seed.”
A veteran of many CIF-seeding battles, Milan kept his perspective on the process.
“We ended up with the third seed so we that the only way to meet up again is in the championship game,” Milan said. “It went as scripted, and give Vincent credit for playing a lot of road games to get seeded higher than us.”
On Valentine’s night in D-IV boys action, Vincent will host sixteenth-seeded Sweetwater High of Chula Vista, while Imperial welcomes fourteenth-seeded Southwest High of San Diego. Tenth-seeded Calipatria travels to Chula Vista to meet seventh-seeded High Tech High, and fifteenth-seeded Brawley will travel to San Diego to meet Clairemont.
There was another blip on the boys seeding radar and it concerned the Imperial Valley League champion Central boys, who garnered the twelfth and final seed in the Division III playoffs.
“Rancho Buena Vista, who weren’t league champs, are the fifth seed, but have to travel to Central who are the IVL champs and get the automatic home game,” Milan said.
In addition to the Central and Rancho Buena Vista boys game on Tuesday night, February 14, the Division I fourth-seeded San Diego High School will host the thirteenth-seeded Calexico Bulldogs. The Division IV eleventh-seeded Palo Verde High Yellow jackets travel to San Marcos to face St. Joseph’s Academy.
All CIF SDS basketball games are scheduled for 7:00 p.m. tip-offs, however schools may agree to change the starting times, so it is suggested that those planning to attend check with the host school for official start times.