Battle for the best postseason seed begins this week in Southern California

Game 24

Cal Maritime Keelhaulers (12-11, 11-5 Cal Pac)
at
Westcliff Warriors (9-8, 8-6 Cal Pac)

Thursday, Feb. 9 – 7:30 p.m.
Irvine, Calif. – Jordan Lawley Facility (ASICS)
(15350 Barranca Parkway, Irvine CA 92618)

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Game 25

Cal Maritime Keelhaulers
at
Saint Katherine Firebirds (15-7, 11-4 Cal Pac)

Saturday, Feb. 11 – 4 p.m.
San Marcos, Calif. – USK Sports Complex
(1248 Los Vallecitos Boulevard  San Marcos, CA 92069)

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VALLEJO, Calif. – After accomplishing one of its goals for the season in last Sunday's home game vs. Park Gilbert, qualifying for the Cal Pac's postseason tournament, men's basketball will now battle for the best possible seed at the Men's Basketball Championship throughout the final two weeks of the season.

Since Antelope Valley holds a 15-1 league record entering this week's slate, it is the frontrunner to lock up the top seed when playoff teams head to Arizona in a few weeks. However, there is only a two-loss difference between Saint Katherine, a team that currently occupies second place in the league's standings, and fifth-place Westcliff. 

Westcliff is where Cal Maritime will begin its final road trip of the season Thursday night before wrapping up the weekend at Saint Katherine. Thursday's tipoff in Irvine is set for 7:30 p.m.; Saturday's afternoon matchup in San Marcos will start at 4 p.m.

In addition to working towards the highest possible playoff seed, the Keelhaulers will face an opportunity to secure season sweeps against both opponents since the Warriors and Firebirds visited campus during the opening week of Cal Pac play last December and left Vallejo with a loss.

After splitting its last four games, Westcliff will begin a busy two weeks of basketball against Cal Maritime in the first of six games taking place between the February 9 and 19. Of those six games, five will take place on the Warriors' home court.

Saturday marks the Keelhaulers' first visit to San Marcos since December 19, 2019 — a game they won by two in their inaugural road meeting against Saint Katherine. Including last December's result, CSUM won three of the five head-to-head matchups.

Victorious in six of their last seven played, the Firebirds will open a five-game homestand on Thursday against Pacific Union before facing the Keelhaulers. Saint Katherine's stretch of home games continues next week against the same trio of Arizona-based Cal Pac schools that visited PEAC Main Gym last week (Benedictine Mesa, Embry-Riddle and Park Gilbert).

Even though this week's schedule is a challenging one since one opponent, Saint Katherine, already punched its ticket to the Cal Pac Championship and the other, Westcliff, on the brink of securing its berth, the Keelhaulers are one of the hottest teams in the league since Antelope Valley's current 10-game win streak is the only one longer than CSUM's current six-game stretch of victories.

Once it returns home, men's basketball will play its final two games of the regular season inside PEAC Main Gym against Antelope Valley (Feb. 16) and La Sierra (Senior Night; Feb. 18).