{"id":182276,"date":"2026-02-18T01:35:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T01:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/182276\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T01:35:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T01:35:15","slug":"local-teams-begin-race-to-golden-1-center-the-vacaville-reporter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/182276\/","title":{"rendered":"Local teams begin race to Golden 1 Center \u2013 The Vacaville Reporter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although March Madness is still a month away, it\u2019s not too early to start filling out some brackets.<\/p>\n

The Sac-Joaquin Section released its boys and girls playoff basketball brackets on Saturday, with Vanden, Vacaville Christian and Will C. Wood all qualifying and hoping to make the coveted dance to Sacramento\u2019s Golden 1 Center.<\/p>\n

Vikings set sail for Division I<\/p>\n

The Vanden girls basketball team received the No. 5 seed in Division I and will host No. 12 Granite Bay on Tuesday at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

The Lady Vikings (23-5, 12-0) finished first in the Monticello Empire League, securing their eighth straight title behind a stingy defense that has limited opponents to less than 40 points in each of their last 10 games.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes the ball isn\u2019t going in, so when you can rely on your defense, it\u2019s always a good thing,\u201d Vanden co-head coach Jake Johnson III said. \u201cEspecially going into the playoffs, when it\u2019s do-or-die.\u201d<\/p>\n

Offensively, Vanden boasts a well-balanced attack that features five players averaging at least nine points per game. Junior guard Makayla Smith (11.0) is the team\u2019s leading scorer.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is starting to step into their new roles at the right time,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had 2-3 games where 6-7 different players people finish in double figures, so we\u2019re getting a lot of scoring from different places.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Vanden'sVanden’s Makayla Smith goes up for two of her 14 points in the Vikings’ 67-2 victory over Rodriquez on Friday in Fairfield. (Chris Riley\/The Reporter)<\/p>\n

The Vanden boys basketball team earned the No. 8 seed in Division I and will host No. 9 Mountain House on Wednesday at 7 p.m. It\u2019s the first meeting between the Vikings and Mustangs since last year\u2019s first-round matchup, which Vanden won 64-42.<\/p>\n

Vanden (22-6, 10-2) finished second in the MEL behind undefeated Sacramento, ending the Vikings\u2019 six-year run atop the league. Vanden is led by the star guard duo of junior Templeton Fountaine V (17.2 ppg) and senior James Carraway (12.6 ppg).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to come into the playoffs tough and gritty. Every game matters,\u201d Carraway said after a win over Wood on Feb. 10. \u201cWe gotta put our foot on the gas and not let anything affect us, not the outside or inside noise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"VacavilleVacaville Christian senior forward Dylan Eddings high fives freshman guard Rome Cintron after converting a tough layup in the Falcons’ 52-45 loss to Woodland Christian on Monday. (Jahson Nahal\/The Reporter)
\nFalcons leave the nest<\/p>\n

The Vacaville Christian girls basketball team received the No. 9 seed in Division V and will head to Tracy to face No. 8 Millenium on Tuesday at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

The Lady Falcons (18-6, 11-3) finished second in the SDL behind Woodland Christian. They are led by sophomore guard Elena Vizcay (17.2 ppg) and senior forward Danielle Ruff (10.7 ppg).<\/p>\n

The Vacaville Christian boys basketball team landed the No. 11 seed in Division V and will travel to Sacramento to face No. 6 Fortune Early College on Wednesday at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

The Falcons (17-6, 10-4) finished third in the Sierra Delta League behind Highlands and Woodland Christian. They are led by senior forward Dylan Eddings, who\u2019s averaging 17.1 points and 8.5 rebounds per game.<\/p>\n

\"Wood'sWood’s Jayden Lennitte and Josyah Ebuen give the ‘night-night’ sign as the Wildcats defeated their cross-town rival, Vacaville, 47-39 on Thursday. (Chris Riley\/The Reporter)
\nWildcats enter as underdogs<\/p>\n

The Wood boys basketball team grabbed the No. 14 seed in Division III and will travel to Lincoln to face No. 3 Twelve Bridges on Wednesday at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

Despite finishing fifth in the MEL, the Wildcats (15-13, 4-8) have shown they have the talent to compete with anyone when they play together. Wood defeated Rodriguez, a Division I school, 68-63 on Feb. 3 and only lost by seven to Division II contender Sacramento on Jan. 22.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we play together as a team, we can play with anybody,\u201d Wood head coach Mark Wudel said after a loss to Vanden on Feb 10. \u201cWhen we don\u2019t, then we have trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although March Madness is still a month away, it\u2019s not too early to start filling out some brackets.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[7,2044,11041,180,993,266,121,123,122,2720,127,6799],"class_list":{"0":"post-182276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-high-school-sports","10":"tag-local-sports","11":"tag-newsletter","12":"tag-north-bay","13":"tag-northern-california","14":"tag-sacramento","15":"tag-sacramento-headlines","16":"tag-sacramento-news","17":"tag-solano-county","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-vacaville"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}