Centaurs Hoops Heads to State Playoffs

Although it lost last week in the semifinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 2A playoffs, the Culver City High School girls basketball team earned a berth in the state tournament, which begins Wednesday night.

The Ocean League champion Centaurs (22-8) will travel north to Porterville to play Monache (23-2) in the opening round of the Southern California regional. Culver City, which lost to Norco 57-51 in the section semifinals Feb. 28, is not among the eight seeded teams in the regional bracket.

East Yosemite League winner Central Section champion Monache is seeded seventh and is riding a 19-game winning streak. The Marauders are averaging 69.2 points, 33.4 rebounds, 15.2 assists and 23.8 steals. Leading the way is senior Jenae Alcantar, who scores 17.8 points per game.

The Culver City-Monache winner will travel to second-seeded J.W. North of Riverside (28-6) in the quarterfinals Saturday. North lost to top-seeded Lynwood, 66-55, in the Southern Section 2AA final Friday at the Anaheim Convention Center. The Centaurs enter the state playoffs winners of nine of their last 10 games.

Here are first-round pairings for the CIF SoCal Regional Division II playoffs:

No. 1 Lynwood (Southern 2AA champion), bye

Murrieta Valley (Southern 2A semifinalist) at No. 8 San Diego Serra (San Diego II champion)

Monroe (City II runner-up) at No. 5 Foothill (Southern 2A champion)

Visalia Redwood (Central II runner-up) at No. 4 Ventura (Southern 2AA semifinalist)

Santee West Hills (San Diego II runner-up) at No. 3 Keppel (Southern 2AA semifinalist)

Norco (Southern 2A runner-up) at No. 6 Palisades (City II champion)

Culver City (Southern 2A semifinalist) at No. 7 Porterville Monache (Central II champion)

No. 2 Riverside North (Southern 2AA runner-up), bye

Quarterfinals, Saturday, 7 p.m.; Semifinals, Mar. 13, 7 p.m.; Regional finals, Mar. 17, 2 p.m. (at Citizens Business Bank Arena, Ontario); State finals, Mar. 23, 6 p.m. (at Power Balance Pavilion, Sacramento).