Tiny Pinewood jumps into rankings after knocking off titans St. Mary's and Archbishop Mitty in succession.
Video: Xcellent 25 girls basketball rankings presented by the Army National Guard
See how the rankings got jumbled as Pinewood shocked No. 1 Archbishop Mitty in the CIF NorCal finals.Though there weren't that many games this past week, one of the few resulted in Archbishop Mitty dropping out of the top spot for the first time in 2018.
It also resulted in Pinewood (Los Altos Hill, Calif.), a school of just 300, jumping into the national rankings at No. 12 after beating previous No. 5 St. Mary's (Stockton, Calif.) on March 10, and backing it up with a triple-overtime win over unbeaten and previous No. 1 Archbishop Mitty (San Jose, Calif.) this past Saturday. Pinewood had never beaten Archbishop Mitty before, and in fact had lost to the San Jose power just two weeks earlier, but took advantage of a key Mitty injury and foul trouble with a spectacular effort to move on to the state championship on Saturday against No. 21 Windward (Los Angeles).
But Archbishop Mitty was not the only casualty — someone had to drop out of the Xcellent 25 for Pinewood to go in, and that someone was previous No. 13 Riverdale Baptist (Upper Marlboro, Md.). But why No. 13 and not No. 25? Several reasons, starting with the fact that Riverdale Baptist had five losses, and one of them was to unranked National Christian Academy (Fort Washington, Md.). Riverdale Baptist also was hoping for a chance to offset those losses with a trip to the GEICO National High School Championship, but was not invited.
The falling dominoes from the Pinewood upset also tarnished St. Mary's of Stockton's resume, as that December defeat at the hands of Mitty looks a little worse, but since St. Mary's knocked off Riverdale Baptist head-to-head, the Maryland school lost that battle.
Finally, Riverdale Baptist's only postseason was in the first-year Independent School National Championship, and the field was weaker than in the state tournaments most other members of the Xcellent 25 had to navigate.
There were some doors that might have opened to keep Riverdale Baptist in the Xcellent 25, but Manasquan (N.J.) rolled through the New Jersey Tournament of Champions (and jumped a spot to No. 16) and Eastview (Apple Valley, Minn.) held off talented Hopkins to win the 4A title in Minnesota.
There's still hope for some space, though, as No. 11 Baldwin (N.Y.), No. 21 Windward and No. 24 Dimond (Anchorage, Alaska) could all be in jeopardy this weekend.
MaxPreps Xcellent 25 National Girls Basketball Rankings presented by the Army National Guard
Pinewood advanced to the CIF Open Division state title game after a thrilling 78-67 triple-overtime win over Archbishop Mitty.
Photo by Greg Jungferman
8. (8) Mercer County (Harrodsburg, Ky.), 36-3 9. (9) Central Valley (Spokane Valley, Wash.), 27-0 10. (10) Princess Anne (Virginia Beach, Va.), 26-1
11. (11) Baldwin (N.Y.), 24-112. (NR) Pinewood (Los Altos Hills, Calif.), 27-2 13. (12) St. Mary's (Stockton, Calif.), 27-3 14. (14) Winter Haven (Fla.), 32-1 15. (15) Westlake (Atlanta), 30-1 16. (17) Manasquan (N.J.), 32-2 17. (16) St. Frances Academy (Baltimore), 24-4 18. (18) Amarillo (Texas), 40-2 19. (19) Duncanville (Texas), 39-2 20. (20) Southridge (Beaverton, Ore.), 29-1 21. (21) Windward (Los Angeles), 26-3 22. (22) Brentwood Academy (Brentwood, Tenn.), 29-2 23. (23) Eastview (Apple Valley, Minn.), 32-0
24. (24) Dimond (Anchorage, Alaska), 28-0 25. (25) Northwest Guilford (Greensboro, N.C.), 29-2
Dropped out: No. 13 Riverdale Baptist (Upper Marlboro, Md.)
