Above: Citrus College celebrated a CCCAA men’s basketball state title in 2008. Can the Owls do it again in a few weeks?
There were no surprises Monday when the California Community College Athletic Association released pairings for the state basketball playoffs.
The Citrus College men’s team, ranked as high as No. 1 in the state, received the No. 2 seed in the Southern California Regional as expected, while the women’s and men’s teams at Mt. San Antonio College, also as expected, received the Nos. 3 and 5 seeds, in their respective SoCal Regional tournaments. The Pasadena City women’s team, after beating Mt. SAC, 64-62 last week, moved up from its No. 5 ranking to take the No. 4 seed in Southern California. The Lancers won the CCCAA title last year.
The tournament begins Wednesday with quarterfinal play-in games, with regional semifinals scheduled for Friday and Saturday. This weekend’s winners advance to the regional finals on March 6, with the CCCAA Elite Eight tournament slated for March 11-14 at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.
Citrus (26-2), which won a CCCAA title in 2008 and advanced to the regional finals last season, will face either Santa Ana (12-14) or Los Angeles Trade Tech (14-8) Saturday at 7 p.m.
Mt. SAC will host a doubleheader on Friday. The women’s team (22-6), which has won four CCCAA titles since 2004, faces Mt. San Jacinto (23-5) at 5:30 p.m. The men’s team (24-4) faces Cerritos (18-10) at 7:30.
PCC (23-4) will host No. 12 Irvine Valley (20-7) at 7 p.m. on Friday.