CdM girls’ basketball makes state

The Corona del Mar High girls’ basketball team gets another chance after a very tough loss at La Cañada on Saturday night in the semifinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 3A playoffs.

The Sea Kings found out on Monday that their season will continue.

CdM will receive one of two available at-large berths from the CIF Southern Section to the CIF State Southern California Regional Division 4 playoffs, the Southern Section announced Monday.

It is the third consecutive year that CdM (23-7) advances to the CIF State SoCal Regionals, but the last two were in Division 3. They lost in the first round in 2014 and last year won their first SoCal Regional playoff game in program history, beating San Diego Kearny before bowing out in the quarterfinals at Orange Lutheran.

The news that CdM will keep playing was welcome news to the Sea Kings after they lost at La Cañada, 55-52, in the Division 3A semifinals when Kristina Kurdoghlian made a controversial three-pointer at the buzzer. Replays showed that Kurdoghlian may have released the ball just after the buzzer, but the shot counted and CdM exited in the semifinals for the third straight year.

“We didn’t get robbed, there was nothing blatant about what happened,” CdM Coach Mark Decker said Tuesday. “The girl made a crazy shot and they won ... [but] I absolutely feel that the way that game ended, we feel like we still have something to prove. I think they’re looking forward to that. It wasn’t like we got beat by a team that overwhelmed us or anything. I told them there’s a lot of good teams in the Division 4 state playoffs, but there isn’t any team that I think we cannot beat.”

The brackets for the SoCal Regional playoffs will be released Sunday evening, following the completion of the Southern Section title games on Friday and Saturday. First-round games are scheduled for March 9.

— Matt Szabo