CIF Southern Section girls basketball brackets released: Sierra Canyon, Etiwanda top two Open seeds
Sierra Canyon-Chatsworth, the nation's No. 1 team, and No. 16 Etiwanda were picked as the top two seeds of the 2023 CIF Southern Section Open Division tournament, it was just announced Sunday by the section office.
The Open Division field was actually released on Friday. Sunday the seedings was announced, along with the two four-team pool play schedule, which begins on Saturday. The winners of Pool A and Pool B meet Feb. 25 at the Honda Center for the championship.
Sierra Canyon (26-0), led by strong national Player of the Year contender Juju Watkins, heads up Pool A and will host eighth-seed Bishop Montgomery-Torrance (20-6) on Saturday, while fifth seed Ontario Christian (25-3) travels to No. 4 Sage Hill-Newport Beach (19-8).
Etiwanda and Sierra Canyon battled head-to-head for sectional and regional titles in 2022.
Photo by Nick Koza
In Pool B, second-seed Etiwanda (26-2) hosts No. 7 Santiago-Corona (19-7) and No. 6 Windward-Los Angeles (18-5) travels to No. 3 Mater Dei-Santa Ana (26-2).
All eight teams in the Open Division advance to CIF Southern California Regional play, which begins Feb. 28. Etiwanda defeated Sierra Canyon in last year's Southern Section finals, only for the Trailblazers to gain redemption in the regional final en route to a state title.
The section also released the brackets of the nine other 32-team brackets. First-round play of those divisions begins Thursday for the two-week tournament. There are also a smattering of wildcard games scheduled for Tuesday.
With close to 300 teams, this is the largest girls high school basketball tournament in the country.
Below are links to all of the remaining nine divisions, which are regulation single-elimination tournaments. Multiple teams in each division will advance to regional play.
REST OF 2023 CIF SOUTHERN SECTION GIRLS BRACKETS
