3 Teams Earn Top Seeding

Three Orange County girls’ basketball teams--Brea Olinda (Division II), Rosary (Division III) and Calvary Chapel (Division IV)--are top seeded for the state tournament, which begins Tuesday. In the boys’ state tournament, Mater Dei is seeded second.

The Southern California playoffs semifinals are Thursday and the finals are Saturday at San Diego State’s Cox Arena and Long Beach State’s Pyramid.

The Southern and Northern California final winners advance to the state finals, which are March 19-20 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento.

Although Mater Dei (31-3) is seeded second in the Division I boys’ tournament, the Monarchs received the No. 5 travel priority and will have a first-round game Tuesday at Chula Vista Bonita Vista (29-4), the San Diego Section Champion.

If Mater Dei wins, it would advance to play the Los Angeles Manual Arts-Long Beach Poly winner.

In Division III, Corona del Mar (19-10) plays at Central Section champion Fresno Washington Union (22-6), the top-seeded team.

Top-seeded Brea Olinda (28-3), which has won six girls’ state titles, will host La Jolla (21-7) in a first-round Division II game. Foothill (27-4) will play at San Diego University City (21-6), also in Division II.

Top-seeded Rosary (22-8) will host University of San Diego High (21-9) in Division III and top-seeded Calvary Chapel (25-5) will host San Diego Horizon (17-11) in Division IV.

In Division I, San Clemente (23-9) will play at Los Angeles Palisades (26-4), the top-seeded team and City Section champion. El Toro (23-5) will play at fourth-seeded Oceanside El Camino (24-3).

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Mater Dei’s 46-40 victory over Glendora in the Southern Section Division I-A boys’ basketball final gave the Monarchs their 13th section title under Coach Gary McKnight.

Since McKnight took over in 1983, Mater Dei has not gone more than one season without winning a section title. Mater Dei won section championships in 1983, ‘85-’88, ‘90, ‘92-’97 and ’99.

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Now that Brea Olinda has won its 17th consecutive league title and 11th consecutive section girls’ basketball title, the pressure’s off, even though the Ladycats still seek a seventh state championship.

“You don’t want to be the class that breaks the record, that loses league or a [Southern Section playoff] game,” said senior guard Lindsey Davidson. “That’s the pressure all the girls have to play with.”

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Rosary has entered the past few seasons with the pressure of high expectations. This season, they were left out of preseason Orange County top-10 polls.

“This year, we didn’t get all the hype, all the respect,” guard Maggie Barnett said. “We earned it.”

Rosary, seeded No. 1 in Division III-AA, won its first basketball title in the school’s 34-year history, 47-44, over Pomona Ganesha.

To prepare for Saturday’s final, Rosary practiced driving the lane against 6-foot-4 Adriel Esparza, the Saddleback girls’ basketball coach.

The Royals managed to get Ganesha’s two best players in foul trouble doing just that, and went on a 12-0 run during a span of 2:48 when they went to the bench with three fouls.

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Santa Margarita, in its first match of the season March 2, fired a team score of 10-under-par 170 at Coto de Caza Golf and Racquet Club. It was a nine-hole school record for the Eagles, a perennial power in Southern Section golf. The previous record was 177.

“In my six years I’ve never seen a score that far under par,” said Santa Margarita Coach Tim O’Hara, who was in Dallas and missed the match. “I was kind of worried about these guys at first but I guess I’m not any more.”

Sophomore Dave Hawkins shot five-under 31 and junior Steve Conway shot 32, both breaking the previous school record of 33.

Ryan Dwight, the starting point guard for Santa Margarita’s basketball team which lost a section semifinal Feb. 26, shot 35 the first time he played this year.

“I’m not surprised we played well,” O’Hara said. “But I am surprised we played this well.”

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The Southern Section soccer championships were a sweeping success for three Orange County schools--Orange Lutheran, Santa Margarita and Woodbridge.

All three had finalists in boys’ and girls’ section finals, and each school won two titles.

Santa Margarita won its Division III titles outright. In Division II, the Woodbridge boys defeated Riverside Poly, 1-0, and the girls tied Newhall Hart, 1-1, to earn a co-championship.

In Division V, Orange Lutheran earned two co-championships with a two 1-1 ties.

Staff writers Martin Henderson and Peter Yoon contributed to this report.