DISR308

Southern California vs. Northern California Champions
Saturday 3/21
ARCO Arena, Sacramento, 8:00 p.m.

Well, they're out. Here are the Division I Southern Region brackets for the CIF "Arco-AM/PM" State Championship playoffs. Since Arco has paid a whole bunch of money to sponsor these games, it's only fitting that they get the publicity they deserve. Kudos to Arco, and to the Arco-Lod Cook Center for Youth Achievement located in Burbank. Their support of CIF basketball throughout the State this year has been greatly appreciated.

Not surprisingly, Westchester is seeded as the No. 1 team, and plays Poly at home, a break for Poly which might otherwise have had to travel all the way across town to Artesia. . . just kidding. Actually Westchester, Artesia, Clovis and Rancho Bernardo, all got the top seeds, and thus are the "home" teams through the first two rounds.

LA City got two teams (Westchester and Manual, which has to travel all the way to Clovis for the first round game), Southern Section got four teams (two from Division I-AA-- Poly and Artesia--and Division I-AA-- Glendora and Pacific) and San Diego gets one--Rancho Bernardo, and Central Section gets the other--Clovis West High.

There are only two possible rematches from the Southern Section and City Section playoffs. If Westchester knocks off Poly, and Manual beats Clovis, there could be a rematch next Saturday of the City Finals. And in the bottom bracket, if Glendora beats Rancho Bernardo, and Pacific wins against Artesia, it could set the stage for a rematch of the Division I-A Southern Section finals. We think the former is a whole lot more likely than the latter. Anyway, here are the brackets. We'll update them as the games are completed, and of course, we'll have details as well. Stay tuned.

(*) Indicates "HOME TEAM" designation for the Quarterfinal Round. All of these games are at 7:30 unless noted otherwise. The official CIF bracket says something about "doubleheaders" being at 6:30 and 8:30, but we think that's reserved for the Northern Sectional Playoffs, whose bracketing is not yet completed because of some sort of protest in the Northern Region. The CIF promises that it will be resolved by Monday morning at 5:00 a.m., and as soon as it's straightened out, we'll post that one up too. We'd like to be able to offer some insights as to who the likely Division I challenger from the Northern Region will be, but we'll have to wait until the protest is resolved and the bracket finalized.

Quarterfinals 3/10 7:30 PM	Semifinals 3/12/98 7:30 PM	Regional Final 3/14/98 Pauley Pavilion 8:00 PM	REGION CHAMPION
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* No. 1 Westchester, 76
at LA Southwest College 7:30 p.m.
No. 7 Long Beach Poly, 51	Westchester
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* No. 3 Clovis West, 82	Clovis West
at Clovis West HS 7:30 p.m.
No. 6 Manual Arts, 68
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* No. 4 Rancho Bernardo, 59
at Rancho Bernardo HS 7:30 p.m.
No. 5 Glendora, 63	Glendora
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* No.2 Artesia, 85	Artesia
at Artesia HS 7:30 p.m.
No. 8 Pacific, 62

Travel Priorities: Each CIF Section has been assigned a "Travel Priority number. Schools with the highest designation will be the Home School in each succeeding round.
1. Westchester 26-3 (LA)	2. Artesia, Lakewood 30-1 (SS)	3. Clovis West, Clovis 30-2 (CS)	4. Rancho Bernardo, 26-8 (SD)
5. Glendora (SS) 29-1	6. Manual Arts, (LA) 25-5	7. Poly, Long Beach (SS) 23-7	8. Pacific, San Bernardino (SS) 20-9