Six San Diego Section teams, out of the original 13, still are practicing and still preparing as the Southern California regional playoffs reach a critical semifinals round.

At least one of the remaining six will be eliminated in games Tuesday, March 12, and one will qualify for the finals Saturday, March 16, at Colony High in Ontario.  That’s because St. Augustine and Cathedral Catholic will meet for a fifth time this season, on the neutral Rancho Bernardo court.

Some 2,000 mostly Saints fans watched Saturday night as coach Mike Haupt’s club scalded Lawndale Leuzinger with a 16-0 run at the start of the fourth quarter to put an end to the shorter Olympians, who battled for three quarters despite an overall 45-23 deficiency in rebounds.

Cathedral advanced with a 57-45 victory at Tustin.

Hoover overcame San Marcos in the fourth quarter for the second time in a week to win 59-56.

St. Augustine is No. 1 seed in Division I and Cathedral is 5.  Hoover is the 3 seed in D-II and visits old rival Redondo Beach Redondo Union, the 2 seed.

CARDINALS SUCCESSFUL 57 YEARS AGO

The last time Hoover was at Redondo was in 1956 in the Southern Section quarterfinals.  The Cardinals defeated the Seahawks 56-54 on Bill Landry’s jump shot as time expired.

Other semifinals games:

Mission Hills, No. 4, goes to Santa Monica (27-6), the top seed in D-1.  The Grizzlies survived No. 5 Inglewood, 49-47.

Army-Navy (29-4), a 78-71 winner over Encino Crespi, gets another home game at Oceanside High.  The 2 seed Warriors face Torrance Bishop Montgomery (31-1), a Southern Section powerhouse whose No. 6 seeding left many observers dumbfounded.

Top seed Horizon (18-11) moved on in D-V to take on 4 seed Sun Valley Village Christian (28-4)  after defeating Valencia Trinity Classical, 52-33.

PREDICTING

We tabbed 6 out of 9 in the quarterfinals.  The experiment in picking the scores was a disaster but I might try it again.

Eight of 11 San Diego Section teams won first-round games and advanced to Saturday’s Southern California regional quarterfinals.  Two others which received first-round byes will swing into action.

Pairings, records ( ) and seeds ):

DIVISION I
5) Inglewood (19-10)  at  4) Mission Hills (27-4).

II
5) La Costa Canyon (28-5)  at  4) Westlake Village Westlake (27-5).
11) San Marcos (27-5)  at  3) Hoover (30-5).

III
9) Lawndale Leuzinger (23-8)  vs.  1) St. Augustine (25-4) at Rancho Bernardo.
5) Cathedral Catholic (29-4)  at   4) Tustin (30-2).

IV
8) Mater Dei Catholic (26-6) vs. Gardena Serra (25-6) at  Torrance El Camino College.
10) Encino Crespi (23-9)   vs.  2) Army-Navy (28-4)  at  Oceanside High.

V
9) Valencia Trinity Classical  (19-6)  at   1) Horizon (17-11).
10) Foothills Christian (19-14)  at  2) Sherman Oaks Buckley (23-6).

OUR GUESSES
I–Inglewood  72, Mission Hills 63.

II–La Costa Canyon 58, Westlake 54.
Hoover 74, San Marcos 65.

III–St. Augustine 65, Leuzinger 58.
Tustin 69, Cathedral 60.

IV–Serra 77, Mater Dei 52.
Army-Navy 63, Crespi 55.

V–Horizon  47, Trinity Classical  40.
Sherman Oaks Buckley 75, Foothills Christian 55.

CARDINALS SHAKE MID-GAME FUNK

Hoover defeated Las Flores Tesoro, 84-60, with a fast start and equally swift finish in its first-round game at Hoover.

Leading  39-22 after a 16-0 run, but with rebounding and inside presence Jordan Alexander on the bench with 3 fouls, Hoover was bumped out of the fast lane by the plucky Titans.

Tesoro launched a 20-4 run of its own and trailed only 43-42 midway in the third quarter, despite playing without  6-foot, 8-inch center Tanner Lancoma, a Washington State-bound center who was out with  a groin injury.

Hoover eventually regained its stride, pulling away to 59-46 at the end of the third quarter.  The Cardinals turned the fourth quarter into a 25-14 clinic of breakaways, dunks, and three-point  jumpers.

St. Augustine saved its best best game for last and earned the No. 1 rating in the final UT-San Diego boys’ basketball poll.

The Saints (25-4) raced to a 16-2 lead after the opening tip against Cathedral Catholic in the San Diego Section Division III finals.  They opened the second quarter with another withering burst of 16-2  to take a 33-6 lead and knock out the Dons, 62-36,  before about 3,500 persons at Viejas Arena last Saturday.

Such was the Saints’ exhibition of ball movement, shot selection, and defense that they were awarded the top seed in D-III and a first-round bye in the Southern California playoffs, which begin Wednesday night, March 6.

The biggest winner in the poll other than coach Mike Haupt’s Saints  was coach Ollie Goulston’s Hoover Cardinals (29-5), who moved from sixth to third. Cathedral was the biggest loser, dropping from first to fifth, followed by La Costa Canyon (27-5), beaten by Hoover, 58-50.  The Mavericks dropped from third to sixth.

St. Augustine,  1-3 this season against Cathedral, could meet the Dons again in  the Southern California semifinals.  The Saints would have to win their opening game against the winner of Los Angeles Hamilton (16-14) and Lawndale Leuzinger (22-8).

Cathedral’s road to a rematch with St. Augustine is more daunting.  The Dons (27-4), seeded fifth, must get by Rancho Santa Margarita (16-15), the 12 seed in the first round, and then take on the winner of  dangerous Tustin (29-2) and Huntington Beach Ocean View (24-7), who play in the 4-13 game.

Hoover is young (four starting underclassmen) and has struggled in past Southern California regionals, but the Cardinals showed moxie and toughness in overcoming San Marcos 68-63 in the San Diego Section D-II playoffs and didn’t flinch in the glare of La Costa Canyon’s pedigree, which includes a berth in the 2012 State D-II finals.

Hoover is seeded third in D-II and La Costa Canyon fifth.  The Cardinals are home in the 3-14 game against  Las Flores Tesoro (21-9) of Southern Orange County.  The Mavericks drew Granada Hills Kennedy (27-7)  of the Los Angeles City Section and are the home team in a 5-12 game.

A possible quarterfinals rematch would pair Hoover and San Marcos (26-5), but the Knights must travel to their first-round game against Villa Park (23-7) and are a double-digit seed in a 6-11 contest.

Army-Navy (27-4) will be favored at home in the D-IV 2-15 game against Montebello Cantwell Sacred Heart (20-8).  Horizon is top seed in D-V and draws a first-round bye.

Final UT-San Diego poll.  First place votes in parenthesis.

Others receiving votes: Torrey Pines (20-10), 6 points; San Ysidro (24-8), 6; Santa Fe Christian (19-10), 2; Foothills Christian (19-14), 2; Lincoln (13-15), 2.

MY CHOICES

As one of 13 selectors, I didn’t always agree with my colleagues.  Actually, I never agreed with them.  But my wife says I’m just a disagreeable type.  So here is my final ballot, with comment.

1–St. Augustine.  Closing fast and capable of  deep run the next couple weeks.

2–Hoover.  Rising program with  brilliant, 75-year history.

3–La Costa Canyon.  Temporary setback?

4–Cathedral Catholic.  They won’t shoot that poorly again.

5–Army-Navy.  I know, I know.  I keep under-rating them.

6–Mission Hills.  Kameron Rooks must dominate for Grizzlies to advance.

7–San Marcos. Solid but not quite special.

8–Mater Dei.  Scrappy and well coached.

9–Lincoln.  Very disappointed in my alma-mater.

10–San Ysidro.  Another well-coached South Bay club.

Cheikh  N’diaye did a double-pump fist salute to the gallery of Army-Navy students sitting behind the Warriors’ basket in Viejas Arena Saturday.

It was a relieved, if rare show of emotion for N’Diaye, whose team had just survived a tense struggle with a tough Mater Dei Catholic squad in the San Diego Section IV finals.

Army-Navy’s 56-50 victory, its first in a championship final since 1986, guaranteed the Carlsbad cadets (27-4)  a first-round, home game next week in the  Southern California regional playoffs.

Mater Dei (25-6) probably is faced with a first-round road game.

N’Diaye scored 14 points and had 8 rebounds and 4 blocked shots and guard Devin Watson, the linchpin in coach Tom Tarantino’s inside-out offense, had 22 points.

Late in the third quarter N’Diaye and his teammates had fallen behind 38-30. Watson still was looking for his shot and the Crusaders were coming down with most of the rebounds and policing the loose balls.

At that point the Warriors came alive as Watson’s three-point attempts began to fall and his side ignited a 21-3 run that produced a 51-41 lead.

A 9-0 Mater Dei volley closed the score to 51-50  but N’Diaye scored with 1:15 left and the Warriors finally put away their unheralded opponent from the supposedly basketball barren South Bay.

The Hoover Cardinals earned their seventh trip in 10 years to the San Diego Section finals last night, overcoming the deep and long San Marcos Knights, 68-63.

Hoover (28-5) takes on La Costa Canyon (27-4) Saturday in Viejas Arena for the San Diego Section II championship.  The Cardinals defeated the Mavericks 56-55 earlier in the season.

After leading 3-0 at the outset Hoover did not take the lead again until the fourth quarter.

A turnout of about 1,200 rocked the East San Diegans’ 77-year-old gymnasium, with encouragement from coach Ollie Goulston, who exhorted the mostly Hoover crowd to turn up the already piercing volume.

The Cardinals lagged throughout, trailing 13-8, 20-11, and 30-21 at the end of two quarters.  Their shots began to fall in the second half, although Hoover still trailed, 43-35 late in the third quarter.

Damonte Holiday, who at one point in the fourth quarter had to be helped off the floor, apparently felled by cramps, fired a 27-point fourth quarter which put away the visitors.

Goulston’s youngsters, including four underclassmen in the starting lineup, were a measure of balance.  Miles Nolen-Webb led with 17 points, followed by Holliday (16), Tyrone Johnson (14) and Dominique Whitfield (11).

Freshman Johnny McWilliams, Jr. led San Marcos (26-6) with 16. The Knights play Lincoln Thursday night in the Southern California playoffs “play-in” game.

St. Augustine students residing in “The Pit,” were off their game last night.

When the score reached 79-20, the vocal cheering section in a  corner of the Saints’ tiny gymnasium began serenading visiting Mar Vista players with “This game is over!  This game is over!”

The game actually was over barely a minute after it began, the Saints stunning the Mariners with eight consecutive points.

Coach Mike Haupt’s team pressed the visitors throughout, and unleashed a suffocating, man-to-man defense in winning the San Diego Section Division III first-round playoff,  87-22.

The Saints (22-4) led 29-8 after one quarter and 53-16 at halftime.

The home team entertained a turnout that included San Diego State associate head coach Brian Dutcher with an explosion of dunks, breakaways, and three-point bombs that appeared to be launched from nearby 32nd Street.

Haupt emptied his bench fairly early in the third quarter when the Saints were leading 64-18.

Though never in it, Mar Vista (13-16) hustled and played hard all the way.

Next up for the Saints is a quarterfinals game against Mount Miguel Saturday, February 22, at St. Augustine.  Mount Miguel defeated Del Norte 74-53 last night.

Cathedral Catholic, top-seeded in III and favored to meet the Saints in the finals, walloped San Diego High Tech 93-30 in its first-round “test”.

HUNDRED POINTS OR BUST

In another why-was-this-game-even-considered Division V mismatch, Horizon’s girls defeated Foothill Christian, 101-4.

The blowout reinforced the idea that too many unqualified teams are invited to the playoffs, serving as sacrificial lambs in the name of more brackets and more revenue.