Cardinal Newman boys team leads five Sonoma County teams into NCS Division 2 tournament

Cardinal Newman was awarded a No. 3 seed, the best seed of five Sonoma County teams selected Sunday for the North Coast Section Division 2 boys high school basketball playoffs.

The Cardinals, the North Bay League champions who went 13-1 and 24-3 this season, will host No. 14 Washington of Fremont in the first round Tuesday.

In the small-school divisions, Cloverdale was seeded No. 1 in Division 5 and will host 16th seed St. Vincent on Wednesday. In Division 6, Rio Lindo was also ranked No. 1, and will host Patten Academy of Oakland Wednesday. Rincon Valley Christian was seeded fourth in the same division and will host 13th seed Summerfield Waldorf.

Among larger schools, Montgomery (7), Windsor (8), Santa Rosa (12) and Petaluma (13) will also play first-round games, with Windsor the only one with a home game.

The Jaguars host No. 9 Redwood of Larkspur, who they beat, 57-55, in overtime in December at Newman’s Rose City Tournament.

Home games are typically awarded to the lower seed, but the Vikings’ opponent, No. 10 San Lorenzo, won its league, so Montgomery must travel.

“I think Washington will be a competitive game for us,” said Newman coach Tom Bonfigli. “We’ll have to come out and play really well. We’re at home, which we always like.

“They have two good guards, shoot well on the perimeter and play good defense, but we play pretty good defensively too. We’ve played some pretty good three-point shooting teams, like Montgomery, and we did pretty well. So we’re in a good place. We can’t look down the bracket.”

Bonfigli and other coaches said this year’s field is significantly stronger than in the past, since Newman, Bishop O’Dowd (the top seed) and Moreau Catholic (4) moved in Division II.

That doesn’t bode well for 16-12, 8-4 Petaluma (13), which drew Moreau Catholic, a team led by a talented senior and the top-ranked freshman player in the nation.

Santa Rosa, which 14-13 and 7-7 in the NBL, faces No. 5 Acalanes of Lafayette, which finished 17-9 and 7-3 in its league.

Montgomery coach Zac Tiedeman had hoped for a slightly better seed and a home game, but settled for No. 7 and a road trip.

“This time of year, you’ll be playing a good team either way,” he reasoned.

He may remind his team that in his senior season at Montgomery, 2006, the Vikings had to travel in their first-round game and went on to win the section championship.

“Hopefully we can repeat that,” he said.

The Jaguars, too, may have been hoping for a slightly better draw than 8, although they get to stay home against Redwood.

Coach Travis Taylor knows Redwood presses on defense and have been steeled for battle during a hard-fought Marin County league season.

“It’s nice to have a home game,” he said. “But it won’t be easy. For as long as I can remember, this is the strongest field Division II has had.”

In Division 3, Analy, the Sonoma County League tournament winner, 58-41, against Petaluma Saturday, was seeded No. 3.

The Tigers will face Alhambra (14) at home Tuesday. Piner (10) and Sonoma Valley (13) go on the road.

Analy coach Brett Page isn’t stressing out about their opponent just yet.

“I could get all worried about what they do, but like (legendary UCLA basketball coach) John Wooden said, you just need to be the best you can be,” he said.

Given the league title victory Saturday, Page feels good about how the Tigers are performing.

“This is the first season I feel like we’ve been getting better as the season goes on,” he said, instead of starting out strong and letting up during the second half. “This particular team, we’ve been improving.”