SBLive's L.A. City Section girls basketball rankings: No. 1 Westchester and No. 2 GHC to meet in finals; LACES debuts
It'll be No. 1 versus No. 2 on Saturday as the Open Division finals matchup that's been projected all season is upon us.
Westchester and Granada Hills Charter both remained unbeaten against City Section competition to hold off strong semifinals efforts Crenshaw and King/Drew, respectively. That sets up what should be a neck-and-neck championship as both teams head back to Pasadena City College seeking gold.
Here are SBLive's L.A. City Section girls basketball rankings for the week of Feb. 20-26. The rankings are released every Monday throughout the season – holiday weeks notwithstanding.
1. Westchester (28-1 – 1st)
Beating a very good team three times in one season is no joke. But on Saturday, Westchester moved to 3-0 against Crenshaw this season, with two of those games being close, to return to the Open Division championship. Mariah Blake took over down the stretch to score a game-high 19 points in Westchester's 56-46 victory.
That makes four upper-division finals appearances in five years for the Comets, who fell to GHC in the Open Division finals in 2019, beat Carson to win Division 1 in 2020, and came up just short against Birmingham in last season's title game.
2. Granada Hills Charter (25-4 – 2nd)
While the Highlanders didn't have a strong night offensively, they turned in an excellent performance on defense and the boards on Saturday to defeat King/Drew 43-37.
The last time Granada Hills Charter was in an LACS championship game was 2019, when it defeated Westchester 59-49. They'll be looking for a repeat performance of that – and revenge for the 49-42 upset the Comets handed them in last year's semifinals.
3. Crenshaw (20-7 – 3rd)
Crenshaw's hopes of breaking through atop the City came to an end on Saturday, but not before putting up a heck of a fight against Westchester. After a week off from games the Cougars move on to regionals, where we project them to be either a heavyweight in Division II or an underdog in Division I.
4. King/Drew (16-14 – 4th)
One quarter of the way through the semifinals, it didn't look like the Golden Eagles were going to push Granada Hills Charter at all. After getting blown out 61-33 by Granada last year, they were down 10-2 after one quarter and 14-4 early in the second. But King/Drew showed potency and resiliency to come all the way back and even lead in the third quarter before falling 43-37. Now it looks to build on last year's strong showing in the regional playoffs.
5. Birmingham (17-12 – 5th)
For the Patriots to play King/Drew down to the last second on the road last week while missing PG Natalie Lopez to injury was quite an effort. They're now on their second week of rest before regionals start.
6. Palisades (13-15 – 6th)
Instead of taking another week off, Palisades faces Taft on Wednesday in pre-regionals refresher. It should be one heck of a frontcourt battle between two evenly-matched teams who also have some budding young talent in the backcourt.
7. Taft (18-10 – 7th)
With a tune-up against Pali coming on Wednesday, the Toreadors don't have to wait for the regional playoffs to potentially move back up again. Sophomore guard Aliyah Muhammad, who was out in their playoff loss to Westchester, is likely to be back and at full-strength.
8. San Fernando (24-4 – 8th)
What division will San Fernando end up in for regionals? Last year, King/Drew was the eighth seed in the Open Division and wound up going on a run in Southern Region Division IV. San Fernando might not be done racking up dubs before 2022-23 is out.
9. Sun Valley Poly (22-5 – 10th)
With Poly beating Hamilton in a slight upset in the semifinals, we officially have movement in the rankings this week. The Parrots avenged a nine-point loss to Hamilton in non-league play with a nine-point win of their own, and should be set for a great D1 title game against LACES. However, there are rumors that they might be missing some key personnel in that game, and if that's true then they'll be the clear underdog.
10. Los Angeles CES (17-13 – Bubble)
It's time to welcome the Unicorns back to the top 10, where they've been in previous seasons but this one. They're also back in the LACS finals where they've had major success in recent years, beating Marshall to win Division 2 in 2020 and King/Drew to win D1 in 2021 before making the Open last season.
NEXT FIVE:
Hamilton, Chatsworth, El Camino Real, Cleveland, Eagle Rock
