La Jolla Country Day’s 60-42 loss to Los Altos Hills Pinewood in the State Girls’ V championship last week was the final, tumbling domino in a disappointing San Diego Section season.

Mater Dei Catholic was the only boys’ team to advance beyond the first round of the Southern California Regional and got to the Division II semifinals before losing to eventual state champion Bellflower St. John Bosco, 84-64.

San Diego Section boys teams lost 11 of 12 first-round encounters.  The girls won 6 of 14.

Mount Miguel girls reached the D-III semifinals but were beaten, 60-50, by Santa Barbara, which got to the state finals before losing to Modesto Christian, 64-55.

FARED BETTER A YEAR AGO

Local teams won 8 of 11 first-round games in 2012-13 and earned two championships, St. Augustine boys in D-III and Horizon girls in D-V. Area squads had won championships in three of the previous four years.

St. Augustine was denied the opportunity to defend its  championship and forced to play in the new Open Division.  The Saints went out early, losing to Santa Ana Mater Dei, 65-38.

La Costa Canyon, another Open Division entry, went down, 71-51, to Redondo Beach Redondo Union.

Criteria for the Open Division is based on a premise of  “past success” and other factors in a confusing tableau.

Why, then, should La Jolla Country Day, a traditional girls state power, be allowed to drop after elimination in San Diego’s Open division to the state D-V bracket?

That champions St. Augustine and La Costa Canyon had to play on the road in first-round games was a radical departure from other years.

Adding to confusion, the divisional nomenclature in San Diego is not the same as for the rest of the state.  Example, Kearny won the San Diego Section D-IV title but played in the D-III regional bracket, losing to La Canada St. Francis, 67-62.

ROAD TO DESTRUCTION

To underscore the weakness of the San Diego Section against the rest of the state were blowouts by margins of 70-21, 85-51, 62-34, 69-33, 79-60, 83-38, and 88-39, among others.

Ocean View Christian was outscored, 67-4, by San Juan Capistrano JSerra.  Perhaps embarrassed, the editor of the state website refused to list the score in the bracket results.

Another head shaker was The Bishop’s 70-26 loss to Long Beach Poly in the Girls’ Open.

The Bishop’s, enrollment about 500?

Long Beach Poly, enrollment more than 4,000?

They were in the same division?

KELL, STEWARD LEAD SCORERS

St. Augustine’s Trey Kell and San Ysidro’s Lynard Stewart each scored 768 points to lead all scorers in the San Diego Section, according to unofficial records by Max Preps.

Kell averaged 24 points in 32 games and Steward averaged 26.5 in 29 games.  Foothills Christian’s T.J. Leaf scored 689 points and also had a 26.5 average. Kajohn Patton of Gompers Prep had the highest average, 27.7 for 20 games.

A list of other top scorers for the 2013-14 season can be found on home page’s basketball link.

Bill Walton and Larry Blum had more in common than just being among the crowd at the University of San Francisco’s National Invitation Tournament game recently.

Both are former San Diego Section basketball players of the year, Blum at Crawford in 1962-63 and Walton at Helix in 1969-70.

Blum set a San Diego Section record with 737 points and had a 23.8 average in Crawford’s 24-6-1 season that concluded with a championship-game,  64-44 victory over St. Augustine.

Walton averaged 29.1 points  and scored 960 points in leading  Helix to a 33-0 season.  Helix defeated Madison, 87-72, for the title in 1969 and repeated, 70-56 over Chula Vista in 1970.

Blum went on to play at the University of San Francisco and forged a highly successful career in the business world in the Bay Area.

Even in his ‘sixties, Blum still plays fullcourt basketball 2 or 3 nights a week and has a key to the USF gymnasium.

Walton became one of the most famous basketball players in history, winning championships at UCLA and with the Portland Trail Blazers and Boston Celtics in the NBA.

The 6-foot, 11-inch Walton and 5-11 Blum hooked up last week, when Louisiana State defeated USF, 71-63, in a NIT first-round game at which Walton served as analyst on the ESPN broadcast.

As Walton said during the broadcast, “There is my good friend, Larry Blum, who set all the high school scoring records in San Diego (which Walton broke) and had a successful career at USF and after graduation he produced the world famous Haight-Asbury street sign poster and has been very successful ever since.”

Wipeouts like these usually are reserved for the North Shore of Oahu.

San Diego Section boys basketball teams lost 10 of 11 games in the first round of the Southern California regional playoffs.

Girls teams helped ease the pain and won 6 of 14.

In four games in which San Diego boys teams had more favorable seeds their combined record was 1-3.

Mater Dei (29-2), the 4 seed in Division II, was the only area squad to win, defeating visiting Tustin (22-9), 59-50.

‘Dei will get a second home game Friday night when it takes on 5 seed Calabasas (28-5), which defeated Sylmar of the Los Angeles City Section, 57-54.

More negative reinforcement is expected Friday night when Open division play begins. No. 8 St. Augustine (29-3) is at 1 Santa Ana Mater Dei (31-0) and 6 La Costa Canyon (27-5) goers to Redondo Beach Redondo Union (24-5).

WOMEN PICK UP SLACK

No. 8 Mission Hills girls (23-8) won their 13^th in  a row, outlasting Alhambra Mark Keppel in Division-I, 54-50, and will move on with another road  game Friday at 1 Moreno Valley Canyon Springs (21-6), which outran Corona Centennial, 94-74.

Seven seed La Costa Canyon (26-3) is at 2 West Torrance (31-4) in D-II after a 53-51 win over Redondo Beach Redondo. The Warriors advanced with a 45-35 win over the L.A. City’s Bell.

Mount Miguel (26-5) will be home to 12 Selma (27-5) of the Central Section after the Matadors defeated visiting Yorba Linda, 52-45.  The 12^th-ranked Selma Bears upset 5 Inglewood, 58-53.

No. 6 Mater Dei (23-8)  moved on in D-IV to meet 3 Torrance Bishop Montgomery (24-8).  The Crusaders defeated 11 Fullerton Rosary (17-15), 48-44, and Bishop Monty blew out Exeter, 61-27.

D-V is a trip, if you’ll pardon the original 1960s expression.

Horizon, the 8 seed coming in with an 8-18 record, topped 9 San Bernardino Aquinas (27-3), 75-33.

The Panthers will meet the L.A. Ribet Fighting Frogs (22-8), the top seed.

The 5 seed Panthers dispatched 9 San Bernardino Aquinas (27-3), 75-33, while Ribet had a bye.

La Jolla Country Day (18-11), the Open Division winner last week in  San  Diego, was able to drop all the way to D-V and responded with a 63-19 victory as a 3 seed over L.A. Shalhevet (19-6).

The Torreys  have a 187-mile bus ride ahead before they can take on 6 Lancaster Edwards Air Force Base Desert (24-1), which ousted Lake Isabella Kern Valley, 35-11.

Yes, 35-11.

What goes around, comes around.

La Costa Canyon, ranked No. 1 in the first UT-San Diego basketball poll in December, is first again after vacating the top spot weeks ago.

The Mavericks defeated St. Augustine, 62-60, in the San Diego Section Open Division championship last week and received 10 first-place votes.  St. Augustine dropped to second and Mater Dei, which received three first-place votes, is third.

The first eight teams will be in Southern California playoffs beginning Wednesday. Morse, ranked ninth, and San Marcos, ranked 10th, played in the Division I final last week but were dissed by the state playoff committee.

**Points awarded on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis
NR Not ranked.

Others receiving votes: Orange Glen, 8; Eastlake, 6; Foothills Christian, 2.

Thirteen sportswriters, sportscasters and CIF representatives from throughout San Diego County vote in the weekly poll:
John Maffei, Craig Malveaux and Don Norcross (U-T San Diego);
Terry Monahan (U-T San Diego stringer);
Bill Dickens, Andrew Smith (eastcountysports.com);
Steve Brand (San Diego Hall of Champions);
John Kentera and Jack Cronin (The Mighty 1090);
John Labeta (CIF San Diego Section office);
Rick Smith (Partletonsports.com);
Bodie DeSilva (sandiegopreps.com);
Aaron Burgin (fulltimehoops.tumblr.com).

Talk about a kick in the pelvic region.  The new State Basketball Tournament Open Division pairings did no favors for two San Diego Section stalwarts.

The seedings and pairings were announced by the state CIF this evening.

St. Augustine (28-3) will visit Santa Ana Mater Dei (31-0), the nation’s No. 2-ranked team, Friday night, March 14.

Santa Ana Mater Dei is the top seed in the Open Division and the Saints are No. 8.

On the same evening, La Costa Canyon (27-5), seeded sixth, goes to Redondo Beach Redondo (24-5), seeded third.

La Costa Canyon, playing from behind as the fourth seed, won the San Diego Section Open championship by defeating St. Augustine, 62-60, before more than 4,000 persons  at the Jenny Craig Pavilion on the University of San Diego campus on Saturday night.

The Saints were the state D-III champions last season and would have been accorded at least an even chance to repeat, but they will not get that more competitively friendly opportunity.

The Open Division includes four Southern Section squads (Mater Dei, Redondo, Riverside North, and Etiwanda), two from San Diego, two from the Los Angeles Section (El Camino Real and Westchester), and zero from the Central Section.

No San Diego Section team gets a home game until Division II. The highest seed for any San Diego Section squad is 3 by the La Jolla Country Day women.  Mount Miguel’s women are seeded fourth.

Chula Vista Mater Dei is the highest seed among men’s teams, with a 4.

Unhappiness award goes to San Diego D-I winner Morse (18-12) and IV winner Orange Glen (26-5), who are uninvited.

All divisions except Open begin play Wednesday, March 12.

First round airings:

MEN’S DIVISION  I
–No. 13 seed Torrey Pines (26-5) at 4 Lakewood Mayfair (23-6).
–No. 10 El Camino (27-4) at 7 Mission Viejo (24-7).

II
–No. 13 Tustin (22-8) at 4 Chula Vista Mater Dei (28-2).
–No. 10 Santa Ana Foothill (23-7) at 7 Francis Parker (26-5).
–No. 14 San Diego Hoover (18-11) at 3 Anaheim Canyon (28-4).

III
–No. 11 La Canada St. Francis (19-12) at 6 Kearny (25-2).
–No. 13 Sweetwater (28-1) at 4 Brea Olinda (23-10).

IV
–No. 9 Tri-City Christian (21-9) at 8 San Juan Capistrano JSerra (18-11).

V
–No. 10 Palm Springs Desert Chapel (23-5) at 7 Escondido Adventist (20-6).
–No. 12 Lutheran (16-7) at San Juan Capistrano Saddleback Valley Christian (25-6).

WOMEN’S DIVISION I

–No. 8 Mission Hills (22-8) at 9 Alhambra Mark Keppel (26-3).
–No. 13 Mt. Carmel (25-7) at 4 Fullerton Troy (22-7).

II
–No. 10 Redondo Beach Redondo (20-10) at 7 La Costa Canyon (25-3).
–No. 9 Poway (17-11) at Norco (26-5).
–No. 14 San Diego Serra (19-10) at Placentia El Dorado (26-5).

III
–No. 13 Yorba Linda (11-15) at 4 Mount Miguel (25-5).

IV
–No. 11 Fullerton Rosary (17-14) at 6 Chula Vista Mater Dei (22-8).
–No. 13 Ocean View Christian (17-3) at 4 San Juan Capistrano JSerra (21-10).

V
–No. 14 L.A. Shalhevet (19-3) at 3 La Jolla Country Day (16-11).
–No. 9 San Bernardino Aquinas (27-2) at 8 Horizon (9-18).
No. 12 Foothills Christian (17-5) at 4 Garden Grove Orangewood (23-8).

St. Augustine and La Costa Canyon, which played arguably the game of the regular season in January, go for the gold tonight.

The Saints edged the Mavericks, 79-74, as part of a Martin Luther King Day doubleheader at Francis Parker and things haven’t changed.  Expect the score to be a little lower but the intensity a little higher.

To the winner goes the San Diego Section Open Division championship.

The question that remains unanswered is where these two clubs will be placed in next week’s Southern California regionals, depending, of course, on the loser getting a bid.

Does St. Augustine stay in the Open Division or go back to D-III?  Does La Costa Canyon revert to D-1?

Two of the area’s best coaches, the Saints’ Mike Haupt and La Costa’s Dave Cassaw, will match wits again.

Tip is at 7 at the Jenny Craig Pavilion on the University of San Diego campus.  Another big game will begin at the same time about 10 miles east, when San Diego State opposes New Mexico for the Mountain West Conference title.

PREDICTION

St. Augustine 64, La Costa Canyon 58.