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Local basketball teams await playoff seeding after strong regular seasons
Lady Bulldogs, Pride share CCAL title; Pitman boys cruise to first league title since 2021
Turlock v Pitman girls basketball
Turlock and Pitman girls basketball teams share the Central California Athletic League title this year and will continue their seasons in the playoffs (CANDY PADILLA/The Journal).

Although they are crosstown rivals, the girls basketball programs of Turlock High and Pitman High must stand beside each other atop the Central California Athletic League standings and share the league championship after they each finished their regular seasons with 8-2 records. There won’t be any bragging rights on the side, either, as they split head-to-head matchups 1-1.

For the Bulldogs, it is their second consecutive 8-2 season, though it’s their first league title since the 2018-2019 campaign. It’s also their first league title under head coach Erica Hernandez. Pitman head coach Parmine Randhawa is celebrating the same milestone. After a 6-4 league record in her first season last year, Randhawa helped lead the Pride to their first CCAL title since the 2021-2022 season — the final year under Dustin Curtiss, who is currently serving as the school’s athletic director.

The Pride finished the year stringing off five straight wins, including a 65-47 victory against Enochs on Tuesday and a 57-38 win over Gregori on Thursday. Their only losses on the year came against Gregori on Jan. 23, in which they were defeated 63-55, and against the Bulldogs, who won 38-33 on Jan. 16. 

The Pride got their revenge on Turlock on Feb. 1 with a 39-35 win. Since that game, the Bulldogs won out with a pair of dominant victories — a 34-17 win over Downey on Tuesday and a 43-10 domination of Modesto on Thursday. The Bulldogs finished with a 12-15 overall record while the Pride compiled a 15-10 overall record. Those figures will play a major role in seeding in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I playoffs. 

The boys teams of each school are also expected to play postseason basketball. 

The Pitman boys defeated Enochs 71-54 on Monday and similarly dismantled Gregori 55-31 on Wednesday, pushing their league record to 9-1 and securing their first CCAL title since the 2020-2021 season. In an addition to the league title, their overall record heading into the playoffs is 20-7, giving them a chance at a home game next week  According to MaxPreps.com’s latest rankings on Friday morning, the Pride are the 34th ranked team in the Sac-Joaquin Section and the 14th ranked D-1 team in the section. 

Turlock finished second in the CCAL standing with a 7-3 record. They finished the regular season with a 57-39 win over Downey on Monday and a 59-34 win over Modesto on Wednesday. The Bulldogs’ overall record is 14-12. MaxPreps has given them a No. 5 ranking in the Sac-Joaquin Section and a No. 19 ranking out of Division 1 teams in the section. 

Brackets for all seven girls and boys divisions will be released Saturday during the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section basketball selection show, hosted by Sac-Joaquin Section assistant commissioner Will DeBoard, the Turlock Journal’s Joe Cortez and the Sacramento Bee’s Joe Davidson. The show will tip-off at 1:30 p.m. and can be viewed on the NFHS Network at https://www.nfhsnetwork.com/associations/cifsjs.