Twenty-two East County teams qualified for this year’s San Diego Section basketball playoffs — 10 on the boys side and 12 on the girls side.
Three teams made it as far as their respective division finals, excluding one team that had to forfeit its semifinal victory.
Two teams were left standing with the championship trophy after top-seeded Christian defeated second-seeded Escondido Charter, 71-69, to claim the Division III girls title last Saturday at Otay Ranch High School and second-seeded Santana dismantled fourth-seeded Del Lago Academy, 46-26, to capture the Division V girls banner Feb. 27 at Mater Dei Catholic High School.
Second-seeded Foothills Christian also qualified for this year’s championship round but placed runner-up to the fourth-seeded School for Entrepreneurship & Technology by a score of 24-21 in the Division V-AA girls final.
As a bonus, the both the Lady Patriots (24-4) and Lady Sultans (25-6) qualified for this week’s Southern California regional playoffs.
Eastern exposure
Christian, this year’s City Conference City League champions with a spotless 8-0 record, breezed through the opening three rounds of the division playoffs with lopsided victories over 16th-seeded Canyon Crest Academy (74-26 in the opening round), eighth-seeded Mission Vista (60-43 in the quarterfinals and fourth-seeded La Jolla (70-42 in the semifinals).
Freshman Leah Speers keyed Christian with 30 points in the opener while senior Maepon Johnson poured in 23 points and junior Sierra Weckback grabbed 11 rebounds.
The Lady Patriots built a 30-18 halftime lead against Mission Vista (14-13) and 41-22 against La Jolla (21-10).
The championship game was anything but a blowout. The Lady White Tigers held an 18-17 edge after the first quarter before the Lady Pats ran off a 25-18 second quarter to lead 42-36 at halftime.
Escondido Charter (23-9) played hard to get with an 18-13 scoring edge in the third quarter to narrow the Christian lead to one point at 55-54. The Lady Pats rang up a crucial 16-15 scoring edge in the fourth quarter to prevail by two points on the scoreboard to extend their winning streak to 18 games.
The Lady Pats trailed on the scoreboard with three minutes to play in regulation to uphold their No. 1 seed.
Senior M.J. Johnson paced the CIF champions with 22 points while Weckback added 18 points.
The game started off fast-paced with seven three-point shots between the teams. Escondido Charter freshman standout Azalea Vilaysing sank seven treys on her own in amassing a game-high 32 points in a thrilling individual performance.
Vilaysing, who led the Lady White Tigers with a 13.2 season scoring average, sank a three-point shot with six seconds to play to cut into a late 71-66 Christian lead. Charter stole the ball after the restart but missed a shot at the buzzer in an exciting finish.
Sophomore Jazmyn Bugg tacked on 15 points for the Lady Pats while Speers contributed 14 points.
Santana’s division title — the first for the Santee school since 2006 and the 10th overall in program history — came via a superb turnaround from a 5-22 season the year before.
The CIF trophy goes a long way to soothe the aches experienced after last year’s five-win season (three by forfeit).
“Last season was more about teaching fundamentals and learning who we are as a team, not wins and losses,” explained head coach Mark LeFlar. “This year we achieved 25 wins, and it felt good seeing the girls develop to their potential on the basketball floor, and to grow as young women off the basketball floor.
“Winning the championship is a testament to the players’ hard work, discipline and commitment. Coaches can put players in the right positions, but it is up to them to execute.”
Santana finished 7-3 in Grossmont Valley League play in taking a runner-up finish to undefeated West Hills (10-0 in league) prior to the start of the division playoffs. The Lady Sultans received a bye in the opening round before munching on seventh-seeded San Pasqual, 41-12, in the quarterfinals. A 50-19 win over third-seeded O’Farrell Charter (17-8) followed in the semifinals to set the stage for another dominant performance in the championship game.
A pair of youngsters put the Lady Sultans on their backs in the final as freshman Sam Mora poured in 18 points and sophomore Harper Diaz dropped in 13 points. Diaz also had 12 rebounds while Diaz and Mora both made four steals.
Diaz had 20 points and 19 rebounds in the win over San Pasqual while Diaz and senior Kaliyah Cruz each had 12 points in the semifinal win. O’Farrell Charter was held to single digit scoring in each quarter as freshman Brynn Warren racked up 10 points and 19 rebounds.
The Lady Sultans held San Pasqual scores in the third quarter after leading 13-2 after the first quarter and 21-7 at halftime.
Mora led Santana with an 11.7 scoring average through 31 games played.
The championship game was a tale of two halves as the Lady Sultans came up empty on their opening nine shots before going on an epic 32-0 run to crush any hopes Del Lago had of getting back in the game. The Lady Firebirds got no closer than 20 points.
Foothills Christian received the No. 2 seed in Division V-AA and easily defeated 10th-seeded Chula Vista Learning Community Charter, 61-11, in its opening quarterfinal outing to advance against third-seeded San Diego Academy in the semifinals.
The final two games of the season, in fact, were nail-biters for the Lady Knights, who finished as Coastal-Sunset League tri-champions. After surviving a 28- 26 overtime scare against San Diego Academy, Foothills came out on the short end by three points to SET, which upset top-seeded Warner, 31-30, in the semifinals.
Senior Anicka Redondo led the Lady Lions (13-8) with 10 points in the division final.
Next step
A total of 18 section teams qualified for the regional playoffs — all eight Open Division teams, semifinalist and finalists from Division I, champion and runner-up in both Division II and Division III and champions only in Division IV and Division V.
Teams will compete in six divisions for the Southern California regionals and seven divisions in the Northern California regionals. Brackets range from eight to 16 teams.
There are four rounds in the SoCal regionals (March 4-11) leading up to the state championship game March 14.
Open Division regional qualifiers included Grossmont (fifth seed) and El Capitan (seventh seed) . Both teams went out in the quarterfinals but still had future games to look forward to.
Grossmont (22-4) received the No 2 seed in the Division II regionals while El Capitan (23-6) received the No. 4 seed. The Lady Foothillers were set to host No. 15 Mark Keppel (24-9) in Tuesday’s opening round while the Lady Vaqueros drew No. 13 Rancho Buena Vista (Division I runner-up).
Grossmont lost, 53-40, to No. 4 Westview (20-9) in the section quarterfinals while El Capitan was upended 76-29 by No. 2 La Jolla Country Day (17-11).
Christian locked up the No. 8 seed in the Division III regional bracket and a first-round date with ninth-seeded Cerritos (17-16) while Santana was seeded 16th in Division V opposite top-seeded Granada Hills Kennedy (23-7).
Grossmont found its way to a second-place finish in last year’s state championship game.
East County appeared to have a fourth girls team in the division finals until fourth-seeded El Cajon Valley had its semifinal win over ninth-seeded Escondido overturned because of an ineligible player.
Only one East County boys team managed to advance as far as the semifinals (seventh-seeded Granite Hills in Division IV).
