Four South Bay Teams Play for Basketball Championships

Four South Bay girls’ basketball teams--Morningside, Bishop Montgomery, Palos Verdes and St. Bernard--will play in CIF-Southern Section divisional championship games today.

Top-seeded Morningside (28-2) will try to win its fourth consecutive major division title when it faces second-seeded Chino (28-3) at 8:15 p.m. at UC Irvine in the Division I-AA final. That has happened only once before, when Cheryl Miller led Riverside Poly to four titles from 1979 to 1982.

The other three games will be played at Cal Poly Pomona.

In Division II-A, second-seeded Bishop Montgomery will make its first appearance in a CIF girls’ basketball final when it meets unseeded Woodbridge of Irvine (23-5) at 6:30. The Knights, led by guards Lily Cabaleiro and Mirlen Martinez, advanced with a 54-50 semifinal victory Wednesday over Burroughs of Ridgecrest.

In Division III-AA, top-seeded Palos Verdes (27-2) will attempt to win its second sectional title when it meets third-seeded Lompoc (21-2) at 4:30 p.m. The Sea Kings, who won the 1988 3-A Division title, have won each of their three playoff games by at least 24 points.

In Division III-A, St. Bernard (24-6), which took third behind Bishop Montgomery in the Mission League, will face third-seeded Costa Mesa (19-7) at 2:45 p.m. in the opener of today’s four-game program at Cal Poly Pomona.

The winner of each final automatically earns a berth in the state regional playoffs, which will be contested next week.