Monday, March 5, 2007

Despite title, Sea Kings hit the road
But Mater Dei, which lost its CIF title game, gets a home game to start the state Regionals.

By CARLOS ARIAS AND STEVE FRYER
The Orange County Register

Corona del Mar won its CIF boys basketball championship game Saturday. Mater Dei lost in its CIF final.

When the CIF Southern California Regionals begin, Corona del Mar will be on the road and Mater Dei will have a home game.

Welcome to the interesting world of CIF State basketball.

Champions from the CIF Southern and Northern California Regionals meet in the state finals on March 23 and 24 in Sacramento.

Corona del Mar coach Ryan Schachter learned Sunday that the Sea Kings would have a first-round game at Mission Bay of San Diego in a Division III first-round game Thursday.

Schachter figured Corona del Mar, which won the CIF-Southern Section Division III-A championship Saturday with a victory over Renaissance Academy of La Canada at the Honda Center, earned a first-round home game.

"Yes, I'm surprised we're on the road," Schachter said. "But we'll deal with it."

Schachter noted that the CIF State's brackets had Corona del Mar with a 19-7 record, but the Sea Kings are 22-7.

"Potentially," he replied, when asked if the wrong record affected Corona del Mar's first-round assignment. "I see they put Twentynine Palms ahead of us, and we beat Palms Springs, who Twentynine Palms lost to."

The CIF State office also assesses host priority numbers in the Regionals divisions. Mater Dei not only got the No.1 seed in CIF Southern California Regionals Division II, it also got host priority No.1, which means the Monarchs will be home for the first round Thursday and also Saturday, no matter whom the opponent would be that day.

Mater Dei will play host to CIF-Central Section Division II runner-up Tulare Western on Thursday.

When Division I first-round games are played Tuesday, Los Alamitos, CIF-SS Division I-A champion, will be home against Arroyo Valley of San Bernardino, which lost to St. Bernard in the CIF-SS Division II-AA semifinals.

First-round games are Tuesday in Division I, and Thursday in the other four Divisions. The Regionals semifinals are Saturday, at the host schools. The Regionals finals are March 17 at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion in Divisions I, II and III, and at Cal State Fullerton in Divisions IV and V.