The Long Beach Poly girls’ basketball CIF-SS Open Division loss to Corona Centennial on Wednesday posed more questions than answers. Namely, about the Open Division tiebreaker. If the Jackrabbits win at Windward tonight at 7 p.m., it would create a three-way tie in the pool with Poly, Windward, and Centennial all at 2-1, having beaten each other.
After looking at the tiebreaker, Poly coach Carl Buggs shook his head. The tiebreaker rules state that the 2-1 team with the lowest “seed points” among the teams they beat will advance.
“I don’t know what that means, we’re just going to go try to win,” he said with a laugh.
The good news: if Poly wins at Windward, the Jackrabbits would also win the tiebreaker and advance to Friday’s Open Division championship game in the Pyramid at 5 p.m. If Windward wins, they’ll advance to the championship.
That means that despite a complicated tiebreaker, this is essentially a semifinal game. Windward beat Poly earlier this year but the Jackrabbits were without the services of Kalaya Buggs.
Poly would advance with a win because the combined “seed points” of the teams they beat (No. 1 Windward and No. 7 Rosary) would be 8 points. The wins Windward would have (No. 6 Corona Centennial and No. 7 Rosary) would earn 13 points. The wins Corona Centennial would have (No. 3 Poly and No. 7 Rosary) would be 10 points.
PHOTOS: Long Beach Poly vs. Corona Centennial CIF Basketball
