Selland Arena hosts two full days of section basketball finals. A look at matchups
Selland Arena will be busier than it has ever been this weekend with 12 Central Section basketball championship games.
The introduction this year of an Open Division adds a boys and girls final to the weekend mix, and in the marquee spot: The top-seeded Clovis West girls play No. 2 Clovis North at 6 p.m. Saturday followed by No. 1 Clovis West vs. No. 3 San Joaquin Memorial in the 8 o’clock boys championship game.
The action gets started at 10 a.m. Friday when Strathmore plays East in the D-V girls final.
A closer look at some of the marquee matchups:
Girls Open: Clovis West (26-4), the 2017 state D-I champion, aims for its eighth straight section title with another finals date against No. 2 Clovis North. The teams split Tri-River Athletic Conference meetings last season before Clovis West won 73-38 in the D-I final at Selland. This year, Clovis West swept the TRAC including 12- and 22-point wins over Clovis North (22-7).
Boys Open: Clovis West beat Bullard 89-81 in double-overtime in last year’s D-I final, the Golden Eagles’ first since 2006. Clovis West (26-4) returns to the big stage against an SJM (23-6) team that retooled after loosing Jalen Green (transferred to a prep school) from last year’s D-II champs. Clovis West beat Memorial 82-75 in December.
Boys D-I: Third-seeded Clovis East and No. 4 Bullard meet in the Friday 8 p.m. game. Bullard (18-13) tied Edison for second in the County/Metro Athletic Conference, four games behind SJM; Clovis East (20-10) tied Buchanan for third in the Tri-River Athletic Conference behind Clovis West and Open Division semifinalist Clovis North.
It’s a marque coaching matchup, too: Bullard’s Tim Amundsen vs. Clovis East’s Adrian Wiggins, the former Fresno State women’s coach.
Boys D-III: No. 3 Hoover (22-8) under coach Tezale Archie aims for its first section title since winning D-III in 2011. Top-seeded Bakersfield Christian (22-6) stands in the way at 4 p.m. Friday.
Girls D-II: Clovis West and San Joaquin Memorial are the only schools to put two teams in the finals, with the SJM girls (21-8) playing Mission Prep at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Memorial is looking for its fourth straight section crown. Last year, it won at D-IV.
Girls D-IV: Two of the section’s state royalty square off here: defending state D-V champ Caruthers (27-4) vs. 2018 D-V winner Sierra Pacific (25-6).
Central Section Championships
At Selland Arena
Friday, Feb. 28
10 a.m. Division V girls: Strathmore vs. East
Noon Division V boys: Fresno Christian vs. Fowler
2 p.m. Division III girls: Porterville vs. Arvin
4 p.m. Division III boys: Bakersfield Christian vs. Hoover
6 p.m. Division I girls: Arroyo Grande vs. Bakersfield
8 p.m. Division I boys: Bullard vs. Clovis East
Saturday, Feb. 29
10 a.m. Division IV girls: Caruthers vs. Sierra Pacific
Noon Division IV boys: Delano vs. Kingsburg
2 p.m. Division II girls: San Joaquin Memorial vs. Mission Prep
4 p.m. Division II boys: Independence vs. Redwood
6 p.m. Open girls: Clovis West vs. Clovis North
8 p.m. Open boys: Clovis West vs. San Joaquin Memorial
