California CIF State NorCal playoff girls basketball first-round scores, brackets

CIF State tournament updates after the first round of action as scores and notable stats trickle in Tuesday night.

Mitch Stephens | Mar 5, 2025

Carondelet 5-11 junior standout Layla Dixon during team's 79-56 loss to Etiwanda in the 4th Sabrina Ionescu Showcase on Jan. 3, 2025. Dixon's team won a first-round D1 game, 62-57 at home over Saint Francis. / Photo: Dennis Lee

It's win or go home in the state of California.

The CIF State playoffs are here. The first round of the tournament in the North from Divisions I through V started Tuesday night. The Open Division (boys and girls) will start Wednesday night.

The quarterfinals will be played Thursday. The semifinals on Saturday and the regional finals are set for Tuesday — winner advances to the CIF State finals in Sacramento on March 14-15.

Here are the most notable scores and games we found around the net (check links below for all the scores) ...

Could there be a bigger stunner than 16th seed San Joaquin Memorial defeating top Division 1 seed Folsom, 84-74? The Panthers (23-6), which lost in the Central Section quarterfinals 66-63 to Central, moves on to the quarterfinals of NorCal against Piedmont, a surprisingly lopsided 60-29 winner at Oakland Tech.

Sienna Evans had 27 points for SJM, Gia Souza added 21 points and Alexa Raquelle 20. That's 68 of the 84.

SJM Panthers take an exciting double OT win in the first round of D1. Nxt up is the #9 seed, Piedmont. Let’s keep it going! @Sienna2025 27 pts@GiaSouza2009 21 pts@AlexaRaquelle 20 pts@paulmeadors @PAGMETER @gabecamarillo_ @FresnoSportsMag @HaroldAbend @CalHiSports @FresnoBee
— SJM Girls Basketball (@gbb_sjm2024) March 5, 2025

The other bigger upset was 11th seed Bishop O'Dowd, which always seems to peak this time of year, defeating host Riordan 45-39. O'Dowd (20-8) now travels to third seed Carondelet (26-6), a 62-57 winner over Saint Francis.

All the higher seeds in Division 1 advanced: No. 2 Clovis, No. 4 St. Mary's-Stockton, No. 5 Priory and No. 7 Cardinal Newman.

CIF STATE BRACKETS/SCORES

Published Mar 5, 2025|Modified Mar 5, 2025

MITCH STEPHENS

Mitch Stephens is a senior editor at SBLive Sports for California, a state he's covered high school sports since 1984. He won multiple CNPA and CPSWA writing awards with the Contra Costa Times, San Francisco Chronicle and MaxPreps.com before joining the SBLive staff in 2022. He's covered the beat nationally since 2007, profiling such athletes as Derrick Henry, Paige Bueckers, Patrick Mahomes, Sabrina Ionescu, Jayson Tatum, Chiney Ogwumike, Jeremy Lin and Najee Harris as preps. You can reach him at mitch@scorebooklive.com.