CIF PLAYOFFS

The South Bay has the No. 2 seeds in the top boys divisions as high school basketball playoffs begin Friday, but every team involved will be hard pressed to bring home a title.

Serra is seeded second in the CIF 5-A playoffs and opens at home against Marina. San Pedro, which tied Carson for the Marine League title but beat the Colts twice, is seeded second in City 4-A playoffs and will play host to El Camino or Taft. The team seeded ahead of Serra is Mater Dei, which hasn’t lost a game in two years. Seeded ahead of San Pedro is Crenshaw, the state’s top-ranked team.

In another 5-A opener St. Bernard (No. 4 seed) plays at Fountain Valley.

In CIF 4-A openers, Redondo travels to top seed Capistrano Valley, Lynwood is at Rolling Hills, San Marcos is at Inglewood and Hawthorne plays at Dominguez.

In the 3-A Division, defending champ and No. 4 seed Morningside is at home against a wild card winner and El Segundo plays at Brea-Olinda. The top seed in the division is Ganesha.

In a 1-A game, defending champ Chadwick is home against a wild card team. Whittier Christian is the top seed.

In other City 4-A games Palisades is at Carson, Gardena is at either Fairfax or Cleveland and Westchester plays host to either Taft or El Camino. In the 3-A bracket, Narbonne is at Poly.

Girls CIF playoffs begin Saturday with one all-South Bay contest in 4-A--Inglewood at Miraleste. Bishop Montgomery has the toughest 4-A opener, playing at top-seeded Muir, the nation’s top-ranked team. Other games include Royal at Morningside and Ocean View at Hawthorne. Redondo had to win a midweek playoff against Culver City to advance to the first round at Simi Valley.

In 2-A games La Serna is at St. Mary’s Academy in Inglewood and Lompoc is at Mary Star. Harbor Christian was playing a midweek wild card game against Cal Lutheran to advance to a Small Schools first round game against Oakwood.