Fifth-Place Century Gains Spot in Expanded Postseason Field

Thanks to the Southern Section, Century Coach Greg Coombs didn’t spend Sunday afternoon thinking about what went wrong or what could have been.

Instead, he spent the afternoon planning his attack for the upcoming Southern Section boys’ basketball playoffs.

Coombs’ Centurions (10-16) finished in fifth place in the Empire League, which wasn’t good enough for a playoff berth.

But thanks to the section’s new ruling that makes eligible any team with at least 10 victories, Coombs was on equal footing with coaches such as Mater Dei’s Gary McKnight.

For a day at least.

“Our kids did what we asked them to do all year and played to their potential,” said Coombs, whose Centurions were among 19 Orange County teams that qualified thanks to the new rule.

Century had the option to decline its Division I-AA berth but didn’t. In fact, no playoff-eligible county team declined a berth.

Mater Dei and Orange Lutheran received top seeds. The Monarchs (26-2) had been expected to be No. 1 in Division I-A, but the Lancers’ top seeding in Division IV-A surprised Coach Shawn Cassidy.

“I thought [Santa Monica] Crossroads would get the top seed,” said Cassidy, whose team has a 21-4 record and won the Olympic League.

Three other county teams received top-four seeds: Ocean View (25-2) is No. 2 in Division II-A; Corona del Mar (20-6) is No. 3 in Division III-AA; and El Toro (22-4) is No. 4 in Division I-AA.

Garden Grove won’t learn its first-round opponent in Division II-AA until today.

The Argonauts (7-17) were scheduled to play Friday at Redondo Union (22-4), the No. 2 entrant from the Bay League. But sources said Garden Grove could play at Inglewood (22-4), which won the Bay League but is dealing with eligibility issues regarding a transfer who played in four league games.

A hearing is scheduled for 9:30 this morning to determine whether Inglewood must forfeit those games. If so, Redondo would be crowned league champ and Inglewood would play Garden Grove.