San Diego Section basketball teams, after hundreds of games and enough travel to catch the attention of Triple-A, are settling into the January-February grind of league play and selected intersectionals before the Southern California playoffs.

Montgomery is No. 1 in John Maffei’s latest The San Diego Union-Tribune poll and No. 8 in California, according to Max Preps and Cal-Hi Sports.

Montgomery coach Ed Martin, a 1996 graduate of the school, which opened in 1970, has built a power since taking direction of the program 17 seasons ago, elevating the Aztecs into regional prominence.

(Martin also boldly brought attention to his team when he scheduled three consecutive years of home games and certain losses, but capacity crowds, against Chatsworth Sierra Canyon and LeBron’s son Bronny James).

The Aztecs are 16-1 with only a 61-57 loss to 15-3 JSerra of San Juan Capistrano after trailing, 36-20, at halftime. Carlsbad is 12-2 and Cal-Hi Sports’ No. 14 and has losses to JSerra, 91-77, and Philadelphia’s Father Judge, 80-70.

Carlsbad won a November game against Santa Ana Mater Dei, 74-72, in overtime.  The usually powerful Monarchs are 13-4 and defeated San Diego Section No. 3 San Marcos, 71-63, last week.

John Maffei’s weekly The San Diego Union–Tribune poll:
*First-place votes in parenthesis.
*Points on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.
*Cal-Hi Sports’ and Max Preps’ represent state rankings.
*NR—Not ranked.

Records as of Monday, Jan. 6.

Others receiving votes
Francis Parker (11-5, 21 points), Mission Hills (10-6, 9), San Diego (9-2, 3), Calexico (12-4, 2).

Voting panel: 18 sportswriters, sportscasters and administrators from throughout the San Diego Section:
John Maffei (The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Aaron Burgin (Full-time hoops).
Steve Brand,  Bodie DeSilva (Union-Tribune correspondents).
Todd Cassen (CIF San Diego Section).
Rick Smith (Partletonsports.com).
Joe Evangelist (Coaching Legends Committee).
Tom Helmantoler (Southern Conference Advisor).
Rex Johnson (CIF Advisory Committee).
Christian Pedersen (San Diego Sports Association).
Braden Surprenant (97.3-FM The Fan)
John Kentera, Dennis Ackerman, Steve (Biff) Dolan, Eric Williams, Tom Ronco, Adam Paul (freelance contributors).

Nick Barkett was determined to improve his lot in the Hoover basketball program after serving as the fifth of five guards on the 26-2 team of the 1959-60 Cardinals.

“He lived at Muni Gym all Summer with (John) Bocko,” remembered Cardinals coach Charlie Hampton.

Barkett and Bocko spent many days, and evenings, in the vintage emporium, Bocko preparing for his college career at San Diego City College and Fresno State, and Nick striving to take his game to a higher level and earn a starting role in his senior year at Hoover.

Barkett, who passed away recently at age 81, did not just improve.  He etched his name in the lore of Hoover’s great basketball history.

The skinny, 6-foot guard became a lean, almost 6-foot 2-inch forward and led the 1960-61 Cardinals to a 24-3 record and the first San Diego Section championship. Nick also was the first CIF San Diego Section Section player of the year, scoring 356 points for a 13.2 average.

Barkett was a starter on the 25-5 San Diego City College squad that was runner-up to Fresno City in the 1962-63 state junior college championship game and he started for two seasons at Cal Poly-Pomona.

The girls from Grossmont and Montgomery closed the San Diego Section basketball season on losing notes in championship games in Sacramento.

Montgomery (25-12) dropped a 56-50 decision to Oakland High (23-10) in the Division V final and Grossmont (27-8) was beaten in D-IV, 42-29, by Eureka St. Bernard (30-5).

But a losing performance probably was the highlight of the boys’ and girls’ 2023-24 season.

Studio City Harvard-Westlake (33-3) won the  state Open Division championship, 50-45 over Richmond Salesian after edging Eastvale Roosevelt, 63-59, for the Southern championship that followed an epic battle in the Southern semifinals with Carlsbad.

‘Westlake survived the Lancers, 73-72.  Carlsbad’s  performance, after losing to the same team, 83-44, in the season opener, was such that it climbed from 16^th to 10th in the weekly Cal-Hi Sports poll and is ranked eighth in the state by Max-Preps.

Carlsbad’s other loss was to Montgomery. 63-55, in December.

Junior Jake Hall led the Lancers with a 20.7 scoring average.

Hall (23) and Carlsbad Lancers were 30-3. Courtesy, Max-Preps.

Angel Ochoa of St. Joseph was the San Diego Section scoring champion with a 35.3 average and 1,024 points for the 19-10 Crusaders.

Mount Miguel’s girls team was 4-21, but not because of Jaelene Hughes, who averaged 38.7 points and scored 903.

San Diego Section boys teams exited early from the Southern California regional tournament, but No. 4 seed Carlsbad stuck around and almost knocked out No. 1.

Coach Clark Allard’s Lancers lost a semifinal battle, 73-72, at Studio City Harvard-Westlake, the same team that had routed Carlsbad, 83-44, in the season’s first game.

The Lancers led by as much as 13 points at 32-19 in the second quarter and were ahead, 41-33, at halftime.  The Wolverines nudged ahead, 55-52, in the third quarter and were in front, 65-58 in the fourth quarter before Carlsbad clawed back in the waning moments.

Boys’ Division I teams were disappointments, not only in the 0-5 record.  Examples:  No. 13 seed Redondo Beach Redondo Union ousted 4 Montgomery, 84-69.  No. 12 La Verne Damien beat 5  St. Augustine, 69-44.

The boys’ season, Open to Division V, ended After 7 seed University City lost, 68-55, to 3 Mission Hills Bishop Alemany in the D-III semifinals.  San Diego teams were 9-17 overall.

Only games with a San Diego section team are listed. Complete brackets are here.
All games played at higher (low number) seed.

	Round 1 Teams Tuesday, February 27	Round 2 Teams Thursday, February 29	Semifinals Saturday, March 2
Open Division  Wednesday, February 28		5 Downey St. Pius X-St. Matthias (24-7) Southern 72 4 Carlsbad (30-2) 75, overtime	4 Carlsbad (30-3) 72 1 Studio City Harvard-Westlake (31-3) Southern 73
Division I	9 La Jolla Country Day (23-7) 59 8 L.A. Windward (29-4) Southern 74
	10 Torrey Pines (21-8) 47 7 Sherman Oaks Notre Dame (30-3) Southern 89
	11 La Habra (30-4) Southern 79 6 Cathedral (19-11) 68
	12 Pomona Damien (27-5) Southern 69 5 St. Augustine (25-6) 44
	13 Redondo Beach Redondo Union (25-6) Southern 84 4 Montgomery (28-4) 69
Division II	9 Mission Bay (22-11) 57 8 Corona Del Mar (25-8) Southern 55	9 Mission Bay (22-12) 69 1 Northridge Heritage (25-9) L.A. City 74
	13 Ventura St. Bonaventure (24-10) Southern 63 4 La Costa Canyon (20-8) 75	12 Bakersfield Christian (21-11) Southern 75 4 La Costa Canyon (20-9) 68
Division III	9 Santa Barbara (24-9) Southern 81 8 San Marcos (25-7) 85	16 L.A. Price (21-12) Southern 55 8 San Marcos (26-7) 74	8 San Marcos (26-9) 60 3 Rosemead Bosco Tech (26-9) Southern 79
	11 L.A. Southern California Yeshiva (20-12) Southern 52 6 Scripps Ranch (21-12) 60	6 Scripps Ranch (21-13) 62 3 Mission Hills Alemany (22-15) Southern 76
	10 Cerritos (22-11) Southern 65 7 University City (25-8) 68	7 University City (26-8) 52 2 Hesperia (24-10) Southern 51	7 University City (26-9) 55 3 Mission Hills Alemany (23-15) Southern 68
Division IV	9 Costa Mesa Estancia (24-9) Southern 50 8 Monte Vista (23-10) 42
	11 Mission Hills (21-9) 58 6 Corona Centennial (21-13) Southern 77
	13 Rancho Buena Vista (24-9) 83 4 Rosemead Bosco Tech (24-9) Southern 87
	14 Olympian (28-4) 46 3 Mission Hills Bishop Alemany (21-15) Southern 57
Division V	12 Del Lago (21-11) 43 5 L.A. Garfield (25-3) L.A. City 66	7 Sherman Oaks Buckley (21-11) L.A. City 64 2 Mount Miguel (24-9) 53
	15 L.A. New Designs (9-7) L.A. City 39 2 Mount Miguel (24-8) 53

Only games with a San Diego section team are listed. Complete brackets are here.
All games played at higher (low number) seed.

	Round 1 Teams Tuesday, February 27	Round 2 Teams  Thursday, February 29	Regional Semifinal  Saturday, March 2	Regional Final  Tuesday, March 5	Final  Saturday, March 9
Open Division	5 Mission Hills (23-9) 47 4 Santa Ana Mater Dei (25-7) Southern 71
Division I	13 Orange Lutheran (21-9) Southern 42 4 La Jolla Country Day (25-7) 64	5 Garden Grove Orangewood (22-10) Southern 39 4 La Jolla Country Day (26-7) 42	4 La Jolla Country Day (26-8) 60 1 Torrance Bishop Montgomery (21-5) Southern 74
	14 Westview (19-12) 41 3 Lake Balboa Birmingham (25-6) L.A. City 49
Division II	14 Westview (19-12) 41 3 Lake Balboa Birmingham (25-6) L.A. City 49	8 Del Norte (20-11) 51 1 Oak Park (21-7) Southern 62
	9 Alhambra Mark Keppel (21-12) Southern 59 8 Del Norte (20-10) 64
	12 Sherman Oaks Notre Dame (20-13) Southern 58 7 Poway (19-10) 50
Division III	16 Cathedral (22-11) 54 1 Dana Hills (27-6) Southern 45	16 Cathedral (23-11) 61 8 Anaheim Canyon (22-12) 54	16 Cathedral (23-12) 51 5 Granada Hills Charter (21-11) L.A. City 54
	9 Scripps Ranch (17-10) 60 8 Anaheim Canyon (23-11) Southern 68
	11 Torrance (16-15) Southern 46 6 Rancho Bernardo (19-10) 48	14 Palos Verdes Peninsula (25-8) Southern 51 6 Rancho Bernardo (21-10) 67	6 Rancho Bernardo (21-11) 52 2 Bakersfield Christian (28-7) Central 74
	10 Francis Parker (21-9) 59 7 Santa Monica St. Monica (22-11) Southern 46	10 Francis Parker (21-10) 46 2 Bakersfield Christian (27-7) Central 58
Division IV	12 Victory Christian (22-8) 59 3 Los Angeles Crenshaw (17-10) L.A. City 65	5 L.A. Crenshaw (18-11) 51 L.A. City 4 Grossmont (25-8) 57	4 Grossmont (26-8) 57 1 Newbury Park (27-8) Southern 39	7 Fallbrook (26-9) 52 4 Grossmont (27-8) 56	1 Eureka St. Bernards (30-5) 47 4 Grossmont (27-9) 29 @ Golden 1 Center
	13 Santa Paula (22-10) Southern 41 4 Grossmont (24-8) 60
	11 Oceanside (20-9) 55 6 Sun Valley Poly (18-8) L.A. City 45	14 Chatsworth (19-13) 42 L.A. City 11 Oceanside (21-9) 51	11 Oceanside (21-10) 35 7 Fallbrook (26-8) 42
	10 Granada Hills Kennedy (26-5) L.A. City 47 7 Fallbrook (24-8) 61	7 Fallbrook (25-8) 58 2 Woodland Hills El Camino Real (15-13) L.A. City 48
Division V	16 Temecula Prep (16-10) Southern 27 1 Montgomery (22-11) 88	8 La Mirada (22-7) Southern 41 1 Montgomery (23-11) 75	4 Reedley Immanuel (26-10) Central 39 1 Montgomery (24-11) 41	6 Escondido Charter (24-12) 51 1 Montgomery (25-11) 55	13 Oakland (23-10) 56 1 Montgomery (25-12) 50
	12 Escondido (19-13) 44 5 Sage Creek (20-10) 60	5 Sage Creek (20-11) 40 4 Reedley Immanuel (26-9) Central 51
	11 L.A. Foshay (16-6) L.A. City 24 6 Escondido Charter (22-11) 66	6 Escondido Charter (23-11) 67 3 Antelope Valley (17-7) Southern 60	6 Escondido Charter (24-11) 44 2 Anaheim Savanna (26-8) Southern 37

John Maffei’s weekly, final regular-season Union-Tribune poll and the final  Max-Preps and Cal-Hi Sports ratings, inclusive of the state playoffs.

Others receiving votes
Scripps Ranch (20-12, 17 points), San Marcos (24-7, 156), Olympian (28-3, 10), University City (24-8, 10), Mount Miguel (23-9, 1).

First-place votes in parenthesis.
Points on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.
Bold entries in columns are up-to-date rankings followed by previous.
Cal-Hi Sports’ and Max Preps’ represent state rankings. NR—Not ranked.

Records as of Monday, Feb. 5

VOTING PANEL

• John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune
• Aaron Burgin, Fulltime Hoops
• Steve Brand, Eric Williams, Freelance writers
• John Kentera, Freelance Contributor
• Rick Smith, partletonsports.com
• Adam Paul, eastcountysports.com
• Bodie DeSilva, scorebooklive.com
• Braden Surprenant 97.3 FM The Fan
• Steve Dolan, Mountain Country 107.9-FM
• Todd Cassen, Ron Marquez, CIF San Diego Section.
• Rex Johnson, CIF Advisory Committee
• Joe Evangelist, San Diego Coaching Legends Committee.
• Tom Helmantoler, Advisor Southern Conference
• Christian Pedersen, San Diego Sports Association
• MaxPreps