5 Tulare County teams tip off state basketball playoffs Tuesday
Five Tulare County high school basketball teams have a shot at winning a CIF State championship.
The Porterville and Tulare Western boys were placed in the 2023 CIF State Division IV playoffs.
The fifth-seeded Panthers (23-10), runner-ups for the Central Section Division II title, host 12th-ranked Beaumont (23-9) from Riverside in a SoCal first-round game. State basketball postseason games tip off Tuesday night. Action for this state Division IV playoff game is at 7 p.m.
Despite winning the Central Section Division IV championship on Friday at Selland Arena in Fresno, Tulare Western (17-14) will hit the road to open the state playoffs as the 16th seed.
The Mustangs collide with No. 1 Valencia (22-10) in an opening-round showdown in Southern California.
Tulare Western won its first boys' basketball section title since the 2006 season by defeating Kerman 60-40 in the Central Section Division IV final.
The Mustangs roll into the state playoffs on a five-game winning streak. During that run, their average margin of victory is 18.4 points. They are also averaging nearly 69 points per game in that span.
"It's awesome," Mustangs' head coach Keith Rickard said Friday after the section championship game. "I think there's been a lot of people who doubted what we do, and this is just kind of validation of how hard these guys work. We play a fun side of basketball, at least I hope we do. I can't put it into words."
On the girls' side, Porterville, Tulare Union, and Lindsay represent Tulare County in the state playoffs.
The sixth-ranked Panthers (18-13) host No. 11 Notre Dame Academy-Los Angeles (19-7) in a CIF State Division IV SoCal playoff game to kick off a basketball doubleheader in Porterville. Tip-off is at 5 p.m. The boys' game follows at 7 p.m.
The Panthers' girls were the runner-ups for the 2023 Central Section Division III crown.
Tulare Union came a couple of points short of winning its first section title in school history, falling to Lompoc 32-31 in the Central Section Division IV final, but will have a chance to extend its season on Tuesday in Calaveras County.
The No. 14 Tribe (14-17) travel to play Bret Harte-Angels Camp (21-7) in a NorCal first-round state postseason showdown.
According to Central Section historian Bob Barnett, this is the first state girls' basketball playoff game for Tulare Union in school history.
The Tribe have won four of their past five games.
"We want to keep our story going," Tulare Union head coach Monica Diaz said via text on Sunday.
Lindsay was the only Tulare County girls' basketball program to win a Central Section title this season. Under head coach David Nucum, the Cardinals topped Matilda Torres-Madera 53-37 on Friday morning to bring home a Central Section Division VI plaque.
Lindsay was slotted in Division V for the CIF State SoCal playoffs. The Cardinals (21-12) received the No. 16 seed and will play at top-ranked Gahr-Cerritos (25-7).
Round II state playoff games will be played Thursday, followed by regional semifinals on March 4. Regional finals are set for March 7. State championship games will be played on March 10-11 at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
Woodlake is the only high school in Tulare County history to win a state championship in basketball. In 1985, the Tigers defeated Justin-Seina, of Napa, 59-57, in overtime to capture the CIF State Division III girls' championship.
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: 5 Tulare County teams tip off state basketball playoffs Tuesday
