It will be a jam-packed night of high school hoops across the city on Tuesday, as the Turlock and Pitman boys programs were each seeded as play-in participants in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I postseason bracket.
Turlock, the No. 15 seed in the bracket, will host No. 18 Central Valley (Ceres) at 7 p.m. from Bulldog Arena. At the same time across town at Pitman High, the No. 16 Pride will welcome No. 17 Tokay (Lodi).
Turlock and Pitman each finished with 6-4 records in the Central California Athletic League, but the Bulldogs were the ones granted third place and awarded an automatic berth to the postseason after beating Pride in their two meetings this year.
Pitman, meanwhile, finished in fourth place, with their postseason bid coming by way of being listed No. 14 on MaxPreps.com’s end-of-season SJS D-1 rankings. If a team is not an automatic bid based on league standings, they must be ranked in the top 15 in their respective division of the website’s rankings to qualify for the playoffs.
The Pride, who were tied atop the CCAL standings with Enochs just over a week ago before dropping their last three games, posted a 23-5 record in the regular season. Their ranking comes in part to their strength of schedule, having split the season series against CCAL co-champions Enochs and Gregori, and nabbing preseason wins against the likes of Pleasant Grove, Granite Bay, Antioch and Frontier.
The Bulldogs will enter their game with a 13-14 overall record and on a three-game winning streak. The Hawks are 16-12, finishing with a 10-4 record in the Western Athletic Conference.
The crosstown contest between Pitman and Tokay will be a rematch. The Pride defeated the Tigers 66-41 on the road way back on Dec. 5. The Tigers went 16-12 in the regular season, and finished in fifth place in the San Joaquin Athletic Association with a 4-3 record.
Top-seeded Modesto Christian (21-7) will welcome the winner of the Pitman - Tokay game. The Bulldogs and Hawks will battle for a chance at a road game against No. 2 Inderkum (26-1). Each game at Modesto Christian and Inderkum would take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
OTHER LOCAL TEAMS IN ACTION:
In the boys’ Division V bracket, Denair will make their long-awaited return to the postseason.
After their run to the CIF State Championship Tournament in 2020 under the leadership of head coach R.J. Henderson, who just wrapped up his first year out of retirement with the Hughson program, the Coyotes have failed to make the playoffs until now.
In Kevin Storms’ first year as head coach, the Coyotes strung together a 15-11 record in the regular season, going 8-4 in the Southern Athletic League for second place. Like Turlock and Pitman, they were one of the last teams in, seeded 18th and slated to travel to Tuolumne to take on No. 15 Summerville for a 7 p.m. play-in contest on Tuesday. The Bears are 8-16 this year. The winner of this game will travel to No. 2 Argonaut on Wednesday for another 7 p.m. tipoff.
Turlock Christian’s girls team will also be breaking a playoff drought. They make an appearance in the Division VI bracket as the No. 10 seed and will travel to play No. 7 Foresthill. The two teams met in the Eagles’ last playoff appearance in 2022, with the Wildfires winning 47-28 in the first round.
This season, the Eagles are 10-15 overall, while the Wildfires are 17-9. The game will also be at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The victor will be on the road to take on No. 2 Sacramento Adventist at 7 p.m. Thursday.
