CIF Central Coast Section 2024 boys basketball playoff: Updated scores, matchups, — Los Gatos pulls out OT thriller, meets M-A (2-23-2024)
It's hard to imagine a much better high school basketball game than Los Gatos' 82-80 victory over Santa Teresa in a Central Coast Section semifinal game Thursday night.
According to the San Jose Mercury News, Scotty Brennan, son of former San Jose State and now Arizona football coach Brent, scored 31 points for Los Gatos including a 3-point play with 19 seconds to play to put his team up for good.
With a place in the CCS finals and an automatic bid into next week's NorCal Regional, these games offer true drama.
There were 10 of them on the line Thursday, all with championship-game berths on Saturday.
Los Gatos will now play Menlo-Atherton, a 54-49 winner over Palo Alto in the other semifinal.
Other teams that will face off in Saturday finals are Christopher and Valley Christian (D2), Sacred Heart Cathedral and Santa Cruz (D3), Menlo and Carmel (D4) and Oakwood and Shasta Summit (D5).
Fedrick Pernell (2) will lead Sacred Heart Cathedral into the D3 finals against Santa Cruz after a 57-37 win over Burlinghame on Thursday. File photo from last season's Open Division title game.
Photo: Darren Yamashita
All will advance to NorCal play and three at-large teams will be selected among semifinal losers. Santa Teresa figures to be one. All of the Open Division team participants also have qualified for NorCals.
The Open Division final is Friday and those participants were decided Wednesday, as reported below:
It's called the Central Coast Section Open Division tournament, but it looks very much like the old West Catholic Athletic League playoffs.
Four WCAL teams met Wednesday and top-seed Riordan and No. 2 Mitty both played host and both prevailed in essentially the semifinals of pool play.
According to Bay Area prep insider Ethan Kassel, Riordan got 18 points from Zion Sensley and 15 by Andrew Hilman in a 65-49 win over Serra, while St. Ignatius gave Mitty all it could handle in a 65-59 Monarchs' victory.
Gavin Ripp, Mitty senior
Photo: Justin Fine
The Crusaders (23-4) and Monarchs (21-6) will battle for the Open Section championship 8 p.m. Friday at Santa Clara University.
According to Darren Sabedra of the San Jose Mercury News, Caeden Hutcherson had 23 points, while teammates Gavin Ripp and Tyler Jones added 13 points apiece for Mitty, which has lost two previous games this season to Riordan, 51-48 in overtime and 76-56.
Serra (19-8) got 21 points from Ryan Pettis and 16 by Andrew McDowell, while St. Ignatius, which fell behind by 13 points early in the second quarter, caught up behind a combined 30 points from sophomores Steele Labagh and Raymond Whitley.
All teams in the Open Division advance to next week's CIF Northern California Regional.
Top seeds in each divisions are Riordan (Open Division), Menlo-Atherton (Division 1), Valley Christian (D2), Santa Cruz (D3), Carmel (D4) and Shasta (D5).
Defending champions are: Sacred Heart Cathedral (Open Division), Bellarmine (D1), Saint Francis (D2), Monterey (D3), King's Academy (D4) and Woodside Priory (D5).
Check the brackets below for the latest matchups, game times and scores:
