The Hawks were rewarded for their 18-9 season Monday with their highest seeding ever in the Northern California regional playoffs and a home game in the second round.

LPC is seeded #4 and will open postseason play at 7 p.m. Saturday by hosting #13 West Hills of Coalinga. The previous highest seed earned by the Hawks was #7 in 2012 when they also won their first playoff game. LPC is 1-4 all-time in the playoffs.

"When I looked at the criteria this weekend, I thought we had the numbers to get the 4, so I wasn't surprised but certainly very excited about it being official," Hawks Coach James Giacomazzi said. "The high seed demonstrated the quality season our team had in the preseason and in conference play. Our conference (Coast North Division) RPI is #1 in Northern California."

Giacomazzi, in his first season at LPC, reached the postseason 6 times in his 11-year stint at Cosumnes River. His 2010 team was a #3 seed.

"(A high seed) is not easy to accomplish," he said. "It shows the hard work our players have put forth this season, and they got rewarded for not only playing good competition but beating good teams."

The first round of the playoffs is essentially a play-in game to determine who will face #1 seed City College of San Francisco in the second round in the top half of the bracket. All other games are second-round games.

Should LPC get past West Hills (16-10), it would host the winner of the second round matchup between #5 Sequoias (18-11) and #12 Cabrillo (20-6). That game would be March 2 at 7 p.m.

West Hills finished second in the Central Valley Conference at 9-3, two games behind conference champion Fresno. The Falcons are riding a four-game winning streak.

"We're going to have to play well to beat them Saturday night. They play hard, and Coach (Mark) Arce does a great job, so I know they'll be prepared. It should be a great basketball game on Saturday," Giacomazzi said.

View the playoff brackets.

The men's and women's State Championships will be played at LPC on March 11-13.