End of Season Rankings Re-Cap
As we said at the beginning of the season after the first 2-3 teams, girls basketball in the south bay was going to be pretty balanced. The 2018-19 season showed just that. With top 2 teams in both leagues only loosing one game each (Bonita Vista 9-1, Mater Dei 9-1, Chula Vista 11-1, Hilltop 11-1) the rest of the teams in both leagues had 5 or more losses among each other. It was an interesting season with a lot of ups and downs. We have compiled the end of season top 10 with familiar faces at the top of the South.
#1 Bonita Vista
After a convincing 81-51 victory over the Mater Dei Crusaders that caused the Mesa League title to be split. The Lady Barons defend their league title with an open division appearance and finishes #1 in the South Bay. They played a national schedule that turned out to be the toughest schedule in the South Bay and arguably the county. Their schedule included nationally ranked opponents such as Centennial Las Vegas # 6 in the country as well as top teams from their respective state with wins over Desert Oasis of Nevada #3 in Nevada and Mission Hills.
#2 Mater Dei
The Crusaders had a great run making it to the open division. The Mesa league co-champs will take the #2 spot in the South Bay. Splitting with the pre season #1 Barons lets us know they are not going to roll over and let go of their rich history of being #1 in the south bay. They played a schedule where they found themselves going 3-1 in the Nike TOC in Arizona and 2-2 in the La Jolla Country Day Sweet 16. Loosing the county’s best player yet returning a strong core, the Crusaders will be ready to defend their half of the league championship.
#3 Hilltop
Hilltop girls have came a long way under 3rd year coach Brandon Alvarado. They moved over to the South Bay league and became the league champions in their first go round. They split with Chula Vista for league and also produced a league player of the year in Guzman. The girls at Hilltop show signs of improvement every year. They are another team with a solid core of returners that will be looking to make some noise next season.
#4 Olympian
Olympian had a solid season, they split with Otay Ranch in the battle of the “O”. They finished 5-5 in what seemed to be a very balanced Mesa league. Aside from Bonita Vista and Mater dei every other team had 5 or more league losses. They will lose a lot of leadership in their senior class but will still bring back their leading scorers in Danalia Brown 13ppg and Quinnlyn Curran 10ppg.
#5 Chula Vista
The defending league champs proved to be a top 5 team in the South. They had a 22 win season with wins over Castle Park and a split with Hilltop. They made it to the Semi-Finals of division III loosing to the eventual champions. They split league with the new comer Hilltop. They are senior heavy loosing the most in the south with 7 graduating players. They will bring back their 15ppg in Frida Caballero.
#6 Otay Ranch
Otay Ranch had a season of highs and lows. They didn’t fair to well in league finishing 3-7 next to Montgomery. Their split with Olympian helped to put them at a #6 finish in the South.
#7 Castle Park
As the 12 seed in Division IV the Lady Trojans worked their way to the Semi-Finals. They stepped up and played cross league games taking a loss to Eastlake and beating Montgomery. They finished 7-5 in the South Bay and found a way to make a run.
#8 High Tech Chula Vista
The Bruins gave it everything they had this year. They could have went for a higher finish had they mixed it up with a couple of teams in the South Bay League. Senior Summit League POY Samantha Magpsao had a solid year and kept us up to date with “Sam on the sideline.”
#9 Montgomery
The Lady Aztecs couldnt catch a break this season. They only won 2 games on the road this season and struggled in the Mesa taking 2 wins over Eastlake and 1 over Otay Ranch. They had a lot of new faces this year adjusting to their system.
#10 Eastlake
The Titans finished up a rebuilding season. They got some young players that are looking to have a big return. They took 1 league win vs Montgomery only to lose to them in the 2nd go round.