Central Section high school girls basketball rankings (1/29/2024)
While a case could be made for spots No. 3-9 in this week’s rankings, there’s no doubt the Clovis West girls are queens of the court in the Central Section. No one has a higher strength of schedule and, better yet, no one has beat them in a Central Section title game in 11 years.
St. Joseph holds strong at No. 2 but after that it gets a little messy. Case in point: Clovis and Buchanan have a split as does Buchanan and Central. Tehachapi beat Monache who beat Buchanan but lost to Clovis. Oh yeah, and Monache beat Central.
Below are the rankings … and we’ll leave it to the teams to settle it on the court.
1. Clovis West (23-2)
Last ranking: 1
The Golden Eagles are on a 13 game winning streak–their only two losses are to out-of-section teams–and are looking strong to finish undefeated in league and lock up the top spot in the playoffs. In her last four games Boston College commit Athena Tomlinson has scored 25, 22, 20 and 19 points.
2. St. Joseph (18-4)
Last ranking: 2
The Knights are riding an eight game winning streak including a solid 67-65 win over San Joaquin Memorial and an 84-38 drubbing of Orcutt Academy. UCLA commit Avary Cain continued her stellar season with 28 and 13 points respectively and Kai Oani contributed 23 points against Orcutt Academy.
3. Buchanan (16-9)
Last ranking: 3
After defeating Clovis East 72-45 the Bears fell 58-53 to Clovis last week and now have a split with the Cougars. To complicate matters, they have also split with Central with a 42-28 win and a 52-44 loss but settle the score on Jan. 30 at home.
4. Clovis (13-11)
Last ranking: 4
The Cougars are still formable but have lost four of six league games. However, two of those losses were by a point and they responded by beating Buchanan 58-53 on Jan. 26. They have dates with Clovis West and Central to close out the regular season in early Feb.
5. Central (15-9)
Last ranking: 5
The Grizzlies are 4-2 and in second place in the TRAC. However, they dropped a game to small school power Monache 39-31 a day after they showed fight in a 61-46 loss to Clovis West.
6. San Joaquin Memorial (13-5)
Last ranking: Not ranked
It’s been a topsy-turvy season for the Lady Panthers, losing 67-65 to No. 2 St. Joseph and 101-55 loss to Ontario Christian on Jan. 27. However, they are 6-0 in the CMAC with a good 52-45 win over No. 10 Bullard.
7. Caruthers (15-6)
Last ranking: 6
Obviously, league has been a breeze for the Lady Blue Raiders, outscoring opponents 440-58 in five games. The small school power stayed sharp by defeating Heritage 62-37 but will most likely be thrusted into the D1 playoffs once again.
8. Tehachapi (20-2)
Last ranking: 8
The Warriors have a 20 point loss to Clovis earlier in the year but a quality 62-50 win over Monache, who defeated Clovis. Like Caruthers, they won’t be challenged in league, outscoring opponents 330-118. The good news, like Monache, they cannot be above D2 in the Central Section playoffs.
9. Monache (22-2)
Last ranking: 9
The Marauders only two losses are to Clovis and Tehachapi but they defeated Central–who is 4-2 in the TRAC–39-31 on Jan. 27. They aren’t shying away from competition either as they have a date with San Joaquin Memorial on Feb. 3.
10. Bullard (16-7)
Last ranking: 10
The Knights are 5-1 in league, their only loss a 52-45 setback to San Joaquin Memorial. They’ll get another shot at the Panther on Jan. 9, the final regular season game.
