Race for PAL hoops titles taking shape

After Friday’s 61-48 win over Half Moon Bay, Menlo-Atherton is the definitive team to beat. The Bears are 6-0 and their closest margin of victory was 12 points, 64-52, over Burlingame. M-A’s scoring depth is what separates it from the rest of the division. In Friday’s win over the Cougars, the Bears had four of five starters score in double figures. With that kind of production, a team doesn’t need a star going for 20 every night.

If M-A has shown to be the class of the Bay, Half Moon Bay is right behind the Bears. The Cougars have pretty well dominated every other team in the division, except for M-A. Burlingame, at 4-2, is still in the mix, but lost to both M-A and HMB.

Boys’ Ocean Division

Like M-A, Aragon has so far run the table. After some early struggles that saw the Dons beat Hillsdale by seven, 48-41, and Westmoor by six, 41-35, Aragon seems to be hitting its stride posting a 10-point win over San Mateo, followed by blowout victories against South City and Mills.

Hillsdale and Woodside, however, are hot on the Dons’ heels, with each team only losing once so far in division play. The Knights’ only Ocean Division loss was to Aragon and Hillsdale has since won its last four games in a row. The two rivals, Aragon and Hillsdale, will meet in the second game this season Friday night at Aragon.

Because there are 10 teams in the Ocean, the teams play an unbalanced schedule, so while Aragon has to play Hillsdale twice, the Dons will only face Woodside once, Feb. 10. The Wildcats also have only one loss in Ocean play, falling to Mills.

The race could shake out a little more as Hillsdale hosts Woodside Tuesday at 6 p.m.

Girls’ Bay Division

The top two teams in the division, Menlo-Atherton and Half Moon Bay, hooked up in one of the most thrilling games of the season thus far. The Cougars pulled out a hotly contested 51-49 win over the Bears Friday night on Makena Glynn’s 3-pointer with 3.8 seconds left.

With the win, HMB, which played for a state championship last season and returns the bulk of that roster this season, is one of the few teams that can match M-A’s physical play.

The Cougars and Bears are the only two teams in the division with winning records. Hillsdale, in third place, is 3-3 and really has the only other shot to sneak in and snatch a division title.

Girls’ Ocean Division

This division is shaping up into a two-team race, with Terra Nova a dark horse in third place. Both Capuchino and Woodside enter the week with perfect 6-0 records. The Mustangs have run roughshod through the Ocean Division and are riding a 10-game winning streak following Friday’s 32-17 win over Westmoor.

Woodside has been equally impressive. The Wildcats had a nine-game winning streak snapped with a 40-32 loss non-league loss to Pacific Grove Saturday. But unlike Capuchino, the Wildcats have had to work hard for some wins. They had a one-point victory over Westmoor, 56-55 and seven-point win over Terra Nova, 48-41, last week.

The Mustangs and Wildcats will meet for the only time this year when they tip off in Woodside at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The winner of that game will have the inside track to the Ocean title.

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While the PAL basketball season is only hitting the midway point of the season, the PAL soccer season is already in its final weeks and the girls’ Bay Division is a big jumble.

Six of the seven teams in the division are separated by seven points, with the top four teams separated by only six points.

Carlmont currently sits atop the Bay Division standings with 14 points (three points for a win, one point for a tie) and has a one-point cushion over second-place Woodside, which Carlmont beat 1-0 Jan. 8.

Aragon sits in third with 11 points, while Sequoia is in fourth with eight points. M-A and Burlingame are one point further back with seven points.

Carlmont and Woodside will rematch next Tuesday, but the cluster is so tight that the standings could change after every match day for the rest of the season, which concludes Feb. 12.

While every team has the goal of winning a division title, the real race is to finish in the top-three to earn an automatic bid to the Central Coast Section playoffs.

The boys’ Bay Division race is shaping up to be one between current division leader Hillsdale, with 17 points, second-place Woodside, with 12 points, and third-place Burlingame, with 10 points. The Wildcats beat the Panthers in the Bay Division opener back on Dec. 10 and they finished the two-game series with the Panthers with a 1-1 draw last Friday.

Hillsdale played Woodside to a 1-1 tie in the first meeting and beat Burlingame 1-0 in back-to-back games Jan. 14 and 16. The rematches are next Wednesday and Friday.

The Ocean Division race appears to be between two teams, as El Camino and Half Moon Bay have separated themselves from the rest of the team. The Colts, at 12-0-1, are one of just six schools in the CCS that still do not have a loss — including 9-0-2 Crystal.

But the Colts hold a six-point lead over HMB, with the Colts sporting 31 points to the Cougars’ 25. El Camino handled HMB easily in their first match, beating the Cougars 4-1 Jan. 16 on the coast.

It is the only time they will play this year, so if the Cougars are going to catch El Camino, they’ll need help from the rest of the division.

In the 10-team, girls’ Ocean Division, teams play each other only once and so far, Terra Nova appears poised to take the crown. The Tigers are 3-0 in Ocean play and have yet to be scored on, with a 13-0 goal differential.

South City enters to week 2-0 and will host Terra Nova at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: 344-5200 ext. 117.