CIF-SS girls basketball playoffs: Sierra Canyon to battle the elite teams in Open Division playoffs

The Sierra Canyon girls basketball team found out Saturday it will be taking on the best teams in the CIF Southern Section playoffs, but that’s nothing new for the Trailblazers.

The perennial CIF-SS power is back in the Open Division of the playoffs, which means it will have to get past some of the top teams in the nation if it wants to bring home another title.

Sierra Canyon (25-1) was given the No. 4 seed and placed in Pool A along with No. 1 Ontario Christian, which has been ranked No. 1 in the nation most of this season. Also in Pool A is No. 5 Bishop Montgomery and No. 8 Sage Hill.

In Pool B are No. 2 Etiwanda, No. 3 Mater Dei, No. 6 Windward and No. 7 Fairmont Prep. Etiwanda and Mater Dei have also been high in the national rankings this season.

The winner of Pool A will meet the winner of Pool B in the championship game March 1 at Toyota Arena in Ontario.

Sierra Canyon will begin the playoffs at home against Bishop Montgomery on Saturday, Feb. 15.

Harvard-Westlake (20-6), which was the Mission League runner-up, is the No. 4 seed in Division 1.

The Wolverines’ first-round game is Thursday at home against Rialto.

Burroughs (19-9), the Pacific League champion, is the No. 1 seed in Division 2A. It will be at home against Millikan in the first round Thursday.

While the Open Division uses a pool-play format, all of the other divisions are single elimination.

The CIF-SS finals will be played Feb. 28 and March 1 at Toyota Arena, Azusa Pacific University and Edison High School.