It was one of those moments where the Turlock High boys basketball team had to take a second look, just to realize what was in front of them.
For the first time during coach Doug Cornfoot’s tenure, the Bulldogs earned a No. 2 position in the first installment of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I power ratings that were released Monday. All but two local basketball teams — Denair High girls and Turlock Christian High boys — received a spot in the top 16 of their respective division, which is good enough to qualify for the playoffs.
The top eight teams will host a first-round game, and the top four finishers in every division will advance to the Northern California playoffs for the first time.
But only one local school earned a No. 1 position, and that the was Turlock Christian girls in Division V. It’s quite impressive for the Eagles, who lost one of the section’s best scorers — freshman guard Halie Bergman — to an injury earlier this season. The ranking builds confidence for a team that has talked about winning the 2010 section title.
But back to the Turlock boys. The Bulldogs, who are 18-4 overall and 6-1 in the Central California Conference, have benefited from a tough preseason. That schedule included wins over Davis High of Modesto and Skyline High of Oakland, with the former team rated sixth in D-I.
The ranking also adds another dynamic to today’s monster matchup at 7:15 p.m. in Merced, with the winner taking sole possession of the CCC. The Bears are right underneath Turlock in the power ratings at No. 3.
“Hopefully, these guys will look at it as a positive of the hard work that they’ve put in,” Cornfoot said. “But the one thing is, Merced is going to look at it and use it as an incentive. We gotta come out at the opening horn and be ready, because in their eyes, I know they’re thinking they beat us, they should be ahead of us. Hopefully, it’ll get us motivated to come out and show that the rankings should be what they are.”
The next installments of the power ratings come out Monday and then Feb. 16 before the playoff brackets are released on Feb. 21.