Foothill did not play in a CIF Southern Section boys basketball championship game. But the Knights were placed in an envious position in the CIF Southern California Regional playoffs.
They are seeded No. 1 in Division II.
The Knights (27-3), who lost to Long Beach Poly in the CIF-SS Division 2AA semifinals, because they are seeded No. 1 will be the home team in every regional game they play.
Foothill opens Division II regional play with a first-round home game Tuesday against Francis Parker of San Diego (18-7). Francis Parker lost in the CIF San Diego Section Division 1 semifinals.
All CIF-SS teams that played in its Open Division of the playoffs qualified for the regional playoffs, as do all of the teams in Divisions 1-5A that advanced to the division semifinals.
CIF SoCal Regional champions in the five divisions advance to the CIF State Championships on March 11 and 12 at Golden Center 1 arena in Sacramento.
The SoCal regional first round is Tuesday in Divisions I-V, all of which are 16-team brackets. Second-round games in those divisions are Thursday, semifinals on Saturday and finals on March 8.
The Open Division has a different schedule.
Open Division first-round games are Wednesday, the semifinals are Saturday and the SoCal Open Division final is March 8.
All games are at host-school sites. All games start at 6 p.m. except for Crean Lutheran’s game that is the second game of a regional doubleheader Tuesday.
Mater Dei (26-4) is at Bishop Montgomery (20-3) in the Open Division first round Wednesday. The Monarchs were 1-2 in CIF-SS Open Division pool play.
Crean Lutheran (22-6) is seeded second in Division I. The Saints, who went 0-3 in the CIF-SS Open Division, are home against Cathedral Catholic of San Diego (19-10) on Tuesday at 8 p.m.; it’s the second game of a regional doubleheader that starts with the Crean Lutheran girls playing a Division II first-round home game.
JSerra (20-10) plays at Fairfax (16-6) in a Division I first-round game Tuesday.
CIF-SS 2A champion San Juan Hills (27-4) is home against Birmingham of Lake Balboa (17-8) in the Division II first round. Edison (26-5) is at Mission Bay of San Diego (19-9) in the Division II first round.
Dana Hills (19-10) is at Mt. Carmel of San Diego (23-9) in the Division III first round.
Four Orange County teams are in the Division IV group. Fullerton (17-15) is at Chatsworth (14-17), Sunny Hills (24-8) is at Monte Vista/Spring Valley (24-5), CIF-SS 4AA champion Garden Grove (22-8) is home against Los Angeles CES (18-13) and CIF-SS 4A champion Western (19-9) is at Golden Valley of Bakersfield (21-8).
La Quinta (19-11) is at Rosamond (25-1) in a Division V first-round game.
Admission for preliminary round games is is $9 for adults, $5 for students, senior citizens (65 and older) and children (5 and older). Admission for the regional finals is $12 for adults, $8 for students, senior citizens and children. GoFan.co is the CIF ticketing website.
