Every boys and girls high basketball team that plays this week in the CIF Southern Section semifinals automatically qualifies for the CIF State playoffs, which begin with games in the Southern California Regional.
Estancia is in the state playoffs for the first time since 1991. That’s before this season’s Estancia players were born.
The Eagles (23-8) play at Temecula Valley (17-13) in the CIF-SS Division 4A semifinals Friday at 7 p.m.
Estancia finished fourth in the seven-team Orange Coast League. The top four teams in a seven-team league get guaranteed entry into the section playoffs, so the Eagles got in.
They traveled to Ojai for the first round, beating Frontier League champion Thacher 58-43. Then it was a second-round win at home over San Antonio League champion Carter of Rialto 74-60. In the quarterfinals Tuesday, Estancia beat visiting Santa Paula 53-51.
Estancia senior point guard Jaedon Hose-Shea scored 30 points against Thacher, 31 points against Carter and 36 points against Santa Paula.
Eagles coach Xavier Castellano, in his ninth season as the team’s head coach, said the Estancia roster is made up of players who could have chosen other schools but decided Estancia is their home.
“We’re lucky that guys decided to stay,” Castellano said. “Jaedon is one of those guys. We’ve got kids who like basketball and enjoy it. But Jaedon loves it and he’s like among eight or nine of our kids who really put the time in.”
Estancia last played in a CIF-SS boys basketball semifinal in 2005, but did not go to the Southern California Regional. The Estancia coach that season was Jason Simco, who now is the coach of the Corona del Mar team that plays in a 2A semifinal Friday at Long Beach Poly.
NOTES
• Marina’s 2A semifinal game against San Gabriel Academy will be played Saturday at 7 p.m. at Marina. San Gabriel Academy is a school of the Seventh-day Adventist faith that observes Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. …
• Corona del Mar (25-6) and Marina (24-7) tied for the Wave League championship. If they win their semifinal games they would meet in the 2A championship game. They split their two league games – a 74-62 Corona del Mar win at Marina, a 60-53 Marina win at Corona del Mar. …
• Jackson Harlan scored 19 points with 11 rebounds for Corona del Mar in the Sea Kings’ 67-57 win over Westlake in the 2A quarterfinals Tuesday. Dylan Gomez made three free throws for Marina with four seconds remaining to lift the Vikings to a 57-55 win over Cypress in the quarterfinals. …
• La Habra is home against Hesperia on Friday in a 3AA semifinal. No. 1-seeded La Habra beat Sage Hill 47-44 in the quarterfinals Tuesday. Hesperia is the fourth seed in 3AA. …
• Woodbridge (21-9) travels to Mission Hills to play Alemany (18-15) in a 3A semifinal Friday. Woodbridge’s average margin of victory in its three playoff wins is 21 points, including a 53-38 win over North Torrance on Tuesday in the quarterfinals. …
• JSerra’s 67-59 win over Mater Dei in an Open Division game Tuesday was JSerra’s second victory over the Monarchs this season. JSerra had not defeated Mater Dei until this season. …
• Open Division pool-play standings after two rounds, going into Friday’s final round: Pool A, Harvard-Westlake 2-0, St. John Bosco 1-1, Sierra Canyon 1-1, Centennial 0-2; Pool B, Roosevelt of Eastvale 2-0, St. Pius X-St. Matthias 1-1, JSerra 1-1, Mater Dei 0-2. …
• Open Division schedule Friday: Mater Dei at Roosevelt, JSerra at St. Pius X-St. Matthias, Centennial at Sierra Canyon, St. John Bosco at Harvard-Westlake.