COMMUNITY COLLEGE ROUNDUP: JC TOURNEY SEEMS WIDE OPEN.

Byline: Gideon Rubin Staff Writer

STOCKTON - The road to University of the Pacific in Stockton, site of the elite-eight California Community College State Championship Tournament, has been perilous for top-seeded teams.

Of the top eight seeds, four from the North and four from the South - all of whom are guaranteed home-court advantage all three rounds of the regional playoffs - only three survived the voyage.

And so the field in the season's state-championship tournament, which opens today at the Spanos Center, is more wide open than anyone can remember in years.

Moorpark College, which was seeded third in the Southern Regionals, managed to survive the year of the underdog and enters the state tourney as South's No. 2 seed. The Raiders play Foothill of Los Altos Hills, the North's No. 3 seed, at 2 p.m.

Glendale, seeded eighth in the Southern Regionals, upset top-seeded L.A. City 76-70 in a regional final Saturday. The Vaqueros are the South's No. 4 seed and will play San Jose City College, the North's No. 1 seed, at 6 p.m.

Other than San Jose, the state champion in 1960, no school in the tournament this year has ever won a state title. Moorpark is the tournament's lone returnee from last season. Glendale hasn't been this far since 1985.

``That's March Madness,''' Moorpark coach Remy McCarthy said. ``It's what makes it great. The best thing about this tournament is that the best team doesn't always win.''

Last season's finalists, Sequoia of Visalia and Porterville, are among three teams from the North on probation for recruiting violations and are not permitted to participate in postseason play. Skyline College of San Bruno, the top-seeded team in the Northern Regionals, lost that final to No. 8 Diablo Valley.

``It makes it interesting, to say the least,'' Glendale coach Brian Beauchemin said. In his 22nd season as the Vaqueros coach, Beauchemin reached the 400-victory milestone in the first round of the regionals.

``It gives hope to the guy who's recruiting right now and looking towards next year.'' he said. ``He can say, 'Hey, Glendale made it, and I've seen them. They're not that good.' ''

--Raiders run: Moorpark (25-6) is one of the hottest teams entering the tournament. The Raiders have won 13 consecutive games and 15 of their last 16, and their margin of victory has been at least 10 points in all but one of their last 12 victories.

Moorpark is led by sophomore shooting guard Devin Montgomery (from Alemany High in Mission Hills), the Western State Conference Northern Division's MVP who averaged 21.3 points per game.

Freshman point guard T.K. Reed (Sylmar) is third in the state, averaging 8.5 assists per game. In addition to Montgomery, Reed's favorite targets are Lester Strong (Kennedy High of Granada Hills), a 6-foot-7 freshman forward, and freshman guard Trevor Lorz, who are averaging 16.3 and 11.4 points per game, respectively.

The Raiders will look to stop a Foothill team that employs a wide-open, fast-break offense and likes to gamble on defense with relentless full- court pressure.

The Owls (25-9) haven't been especially impressive as of late. They lost three of their last five regular-season games and needed overtime to survive a second-round playoff game against Reedley.

--Must-see TV: The championship game at 8 p.m. on Saturday will be broadcast Monday on Fox Sports Net 2 at 7 p.m. The women's championship game, which will be played at 6 p.m. Saturday at Spanos Center, can be seen on the same network Monday at 5 p.m.