Sheldon’s Baron Sabir challenges Modesto Christian defender Somto Patrick in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I championship game at Golden 1 Center on Saturday. Sheldon will play in the NorCal Open Division.
ANDY ALFARO
aalfaro@modbee.com
Coaches remind their student athletes that their high school basketball seasons come in multiple phases. There is the early nonleague part of the schedule, including holiday tournaments, followed by league games, then the CIF playoffs.
This is the heart of playoff time, and 12 Sacramento-area girls teams and 16 regional boys clubs are still standing with the shared hope of finishing the season with a victory in this week’s CIF Northern California Regional Championships, the 44th year of the event.
Games are at home sites on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday with 7 p.m. starts. NorCal title games will be at home sites on March 10. The CIF state finals are Friday and Saturday, March 13-14, at Golden 1 Center, home of the Sacramento Kings.
Every team in the NorCal rounds are ranked overall by a CIF selection committee – the largest schools right on down to the smallest with enrollments of 200 or fewer. Those teams are then dropped into brackets. The best teams are in the elite Open Division with the next 16 in Division I, the next 16 in Division II and so on.
This competitive-equity formula by the CIF was voted in by member schools several years ago to avoid the running-clock, mercy-rule games that dominated tournaments in years past when they were based on enrollment. And the formula works, though coaches and fans are conditioned to complain that they are getting a raw deal in facing schools with more students.
Schools cannot opt down in division in the current formant, but schools can request to move up – though that is extremely rare. Bay Area powerhouse De La Salle requested the CIF keep the Spartans in the Open as it has been in the past, despite the team falling in the North Coast Section semifinals. The CIF granted that request.
The recently completed Sac-Joaquin Section playoff tournament was based on enrollment.
Girls NorCal basketball tournaments
Division I: No Sacramento-area teams are in the Open, though section champion St. Mary’s of Stockton will play there after downing McClatchy in the section Division I title game at Golden 1 Center.
The Bee’s top two ranked teams this season are in the Division I NorCal bracket, where the top seed is Clovis of Fresno. Sac-Joaquin Section Division II winner Christian Brothers is the No. 10 seed and plays at No. 7 Saint Francis of Mountain View in an opener. Antelope, the section D-II runner-up, is seeded 14th and plays at No. 3 Piedmont.
Division II: McClatchy is the No. 1 seed on D-II as the Lions were deemed to be ranked lower than all of the teams in D-I. The Lions open against longtime Northern Section power Pleasant Valley of Chico, seeded 16th.
The McClatchy Lions’ Tori Comfort (3) is chased by the St. Mary’s Rams’ Amani Rafiq (23) and Aynya Hardy (2) in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Division l girls basketball championship on Saturday at Golden 1 Center. The Lions are the top seed in the NorCal Division II bracket. JOSÉ LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com
Sierra Foothill League champion Oak Ridge of El Dorado Hills is seeded ninth and visits No. 8 Salesian of Richmond. McClatchy beat Oak Ridge in a section D-I semifinal.
Del Oro of Placer County is seeded 12th at visits No. 5 Acalanes of Lafayette, No. 14 Vanden visits No. 3 Redwood, No. 6 Woodcreek hosts No. 11 Justin-Siena of Napa, and No. 10 Folsom visits No. 7 Chico.
Division III: Placer, fresh off of its first section title since 1990, is the No. 1 seed in this bracket and hosts Notre Dame of Belmont of San Mateo County. Section D-IV winner West Campus of Sacramento is the No. 7 seed and hosts No. 10 Half Moon Bay. West Campus has another strong team of scholars and ballers under longtime coach John Langston.
The Placer Hillgals’ Ginger Biddle (34) shoots past the East Union Lancers’ Jerney Luckett (15) on Saturday in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division lll girls basketball championship at Golden 1 Center. Placer is the top seed in Division III. JOSÉ LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com
Division IV: Faith Christian of Yuba City has an enrollment of 52, but per the competitive-equity formula, the Lions are deemed the best team in D-IV and will host No. 16 Rancho Cotate. Faith Christian is led by the most prolific 3-point shooter in national prep history in Lauren Harris, who is averaging just over 31 points a game.
Faith Christian Lions guard Lauren Harris (5) dribbles as the Bret Harte Bullfrogs’ Maddie Kane (12) defends in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division V girls basketball championship at Golden 1 Center on Saturday. The Lions are the top seed in the NorCal Division IV bracket. NATHANIEL LEVINE nlevine@sacbee.com
Liberty Ranch of Galt is the No. 4 seed and hosts No. 13 Santa Cruz, and No. 7 Twelve Bridges of Placer County hosts No. 10 Benicia.
Division V: John Adams Academy of El Dorado Hills is the No. 2 seed and will host No. 15 Sonoma Academy with defending CIF State champion Woodland Christian the No. 6 seed and hosting No. 11 Oakland.
Division VI: Forest Lake Christian defeated Sacramento Adventist Academy in the section D-VI finals. The teams are seeded No. 3 and No. 5, respectively.
Forest Lake Christian hosts No. 6 St. Vincent de Paul of Petaluma and Sac Adventist visits No. 4 Ferndale in Humboldt County, a tidy 5-hour drive. There is no D-VI state championship, so the NorCal championship is the final game for this bracket.
Boys NorCal basketball tournaments
Open Division: Bee No. 1-ranked Sheldon is in the Open Division, having won it twice under coach Joey Rollings, whose Huskies of the Elk Grove Unified School District fell to Modesto Christian in the section Division I finals.
Modesto Christian is the No. 4 seed and hosts No. 5 De La Salle while Sheldon is the No. 6 seed and visits No. 3 St. Ignatius of San Francisco as the lone NorCal public school in the field.
Division I: This field includes four Sacramento-area programs, including No. 16-seed Jesuit, which won the CIF State D-II title a year ago and lost the section D-II finals to Destiny Christian Academy. Jesuit visits top-seeded Buchanan of Fresno.
Folsom, a section D-I semifinal loser to Sheldon, is the No. 3 seed and hosts Bellarmine of San Jose. Franklin of Elk Grove is the No. 6 seed after losing a tight semifinal D-I section game to Modesto Christian. If the seeds hold, Folsom would host Franklin on Thursday.
Destiny Christian is the 10 seed and visits Dougherty Valley of San Ramon. How is a section D-II champion seeded so low in a higher division? Again, all NorCal teams are ranked in order and placed into divisions accordingly, and that’s where the upstart Lions are.
Jesuit’s Sahib Randhawa dribbles past Destiny Christian Academy’s Myles Wiggins during the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division II boys basketball championship at Golden 1 Center on Friday. Both teams will start on the road in the NorCal Division I bracket. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com
Division II: Sac High, a section D-II semifinal loser to Destiny Christian, is the No. 2 seed and will host Bullard of Fresno. No. 9 Woodcreek, a section D-II semifinal loser to Jesuit, visits No. 8 Valley Christian of San Jose and No. 12 Placer visits University High of San Francisco.
Placer won its first section crown since 1988, doing so in D-III, but per the competitive-equity CIF formula, the Hillmen are playing in D-II.
Division III: Section D-IV winner Natomas is the top seed and will host No. 16 Carlmont of San Mateo County.
Christian Brothers, a section D-III semifinal loser to Placer, is the No. 13 seed and will play with heavy hearts at No. 4 Priory of Portola Valley. Beloved 6-foot-8 freshman basketball player Jaden DeJesus-Eves died last week in his sleep, and his loss has inspired the girls and boys teams at the Oak Park school.
Division IV: No. 8 Marysville hosts No. 9 Foothill of the Northern Section and No. 16 Colfax visits top-seeded Chico.
Division V: No. 6 Woodland Christian hosts No. 11 Orland with No. 12 Fortune of Elk Grove playing at No. 5 Eureka. Section D-V champion Argonaut of Jackson is the No. 4 seed and hosts No. 13 Weed.
Division VI: The NorCal final is the end of the line for those in the smallest division, and No. 3 Victory Christian of Carmichael hosts No. 6 San Francisco Waldorf while No. 5 Sacramento Adventist visits No. 4 Mendocino.
Victory Christian beat Sac Adventist for the D-VI section title at Golden 1 Center.
For complete brackets and ticket information, visit www.cifstate.org.
This story was originally published March 2, 2026 at 1:43 PM.
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Joe Davidson has covered sports for The Sacramento Bee since 1989: preps, colleges, Kings and features. He was in early 2024 named the National Sports Media Association Sports Writer of the Year for California and he was in the fall of 2024 inducted into the California High School Football Hall of Fame. He is a 14-time award winner from the California Prep Sports Writer Association. In 2021, he was honored with the CIF Distinguished Service award. He is a member of the California Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Davidson participated in football and track in Oregon.