Eight basketball teams from the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference have advanced to the California Community College South Regionals with PCAC champions San Diego City (men) and Palomar (women) drawing first-round byes.
Both the Knights (23-5, 15-1) and Comets (22-6, 14-0) were seeded sixth in the 24-team South brackets.
Meanwhile, the NCAA Tournament hopeful UC San Diego men ran their record to 24-4 and improved to a Big West-leading 14-2 with an 83-44 rout of Hawaii at LionTree Arena on Saturday. Senior swingman Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones led the Tritons to a ninth straight win with 19 points, topping 1,000 for his two seasons at UCSD. Tyler McGhie added 17 points and Nordin Kapic scored 13.
Elsewhere:
San Diego State’s women’s swimming and diving team won its fourth straight Mountain West championship, with Valentina Lopez Arevalo named the Diver of the Meet. Lopez Arevalo won the platform and 3-meter diving titles and finished second in the 1-meter in the Mountain West Swimming and Diving Championships in Houston.
Abby Storm won the 200 backstroke. The quartet of Alli Mann, Kaydence Bispo, Storm and Meredith Smith Baker won the 200 freestyle relay and the team of Mann, Bispo, Wilma Johansson and Smith Baker took the gold in the 400 freestyle relay.
It was a busy sports weekend for San Diego State: Aztecs golfer Justin Hastings tied for 13th as the top amateur in the Mexican Open, and the 23rd-ranked SDSU softball team improved to 12-3 with four straight wins Saturday and Sunday. On Monday, Dee Dee Hernandez was named the Mountain West Softball Pitcher of the Week.
San Diego State guard Naomi Panganiban was named the Mountain West Women’s Basketball Freshman of the Week for the third time this season for scoring 26 points in two wins last week.
• After starting the season 0-14, the Cal State San Marcos women’s basketball team has gone 7-5 over the last 12 games and has won two straight to climb into a tie for eighth in the California Collegiate Athletic Association. The CSUM men (6-20) have won two of their last three games.
• The PCAC will have four teams in both the men’s and women’s South Regional brackets of the 3C2A state basketball tournament. Four teams from each regional advance to the eight-team state finals March 13-16 at Mount San Antonio College.
Postseason play opens Wednesday. In first-round men’s action, PCAC runnerup and No. 13 seed MiraCosta (20-8) hosts Compton at 7 p.m.; No. 17 seed Southwestern (19-9) is at Santa Monica and No. 21 seed Palomar (17-11) visits San Bernardino Valley. San Diego City hosts the winner of Cerritos/Saddleback at 5 p.m. March 1.
In first-round women’s play, PCAC runner-up and No. 10 seed Grossmont College hosts Los Angeles Trade Tech at 5 p.m. No. 13 seed San Diego Mesa (19-9) is at Cuesta. Palomar hosts the winner of Santa Barbara/Imperial Valley at 7 p.m. Saturday.
San Diego City College’s men (23-5, 15-1) closed their conference run by easily defeating the three teams that finished closest to them in the final standings – 63-41 over MiraCosta, 74-62 over Southwestern and 79-60 over Palomar.
• The SDCC men and Palomar women also dominated the post-season PCAC awards.
Knights sophomore guard Logan Huston (Torrey Pines High School, 14.4 points per game) was named the PCAC Player of the Year and SDCC’s Mitch Charlens was the Coach of the Year. Other Knights selected to the first team were guard Kenny Gonzalez (Mater Dei Catholic High School) and forward Marley Gonzalez (Escondido Charter High School).
Other men’s first-team selections were forward Ramel Bethea and guard Benji Hilstock (Vista High SChool) from MiraCosta; guard and PCAC scoring champion Ayden Lockett (University City, 20.1 ppg) and guard Jartavious Jackson from Southwestern; guards Max Zylicz (Torrey Pines) and Isaiah Pomare (El Camino) from Palomar, and guard Tecumseh Rosario (Rancho Buena Vista) from San Diego Miramar.
Freshman Palomar College guard Kylee Trujillo (Mission Hills High School) was the PCAC’s Women’s Player of the Year and Palomar’s Leigh Marshall was the Coach of the Year. Mater Dei Catholic grads Kailani Flournoy and Teanna Alaman were other first-team picks from Palomar.
Grossmont and Mesa also had three first-team picks. The Griffins selected were guards Kyla Palpallatoc (Morse High School) and Anayla Anderson and forward Janea Wilson (Steele Canyon High School). The Olympians named were forwards Kendal Alloway (Eastlake High School) and Alethze Marquez (Helix High School) and guard Stevie Lundquist.
