Despite COVID looking over its shoulders, the Point Loma Pointers basketball team qualified for the postseason CIF basketball playoffs.

Head coach Josh Aros learned his team was seeded No. 10 in the 16-team Div. III single-elimination tournament that began earlier this week as the Pointers travel to face No. 7 seed Steele Canyon on Feb. 16. The winner will face either No. 2 Madison or No. 15 Sweetwater on Feb. 19, at the home of the highest-seeded team. All games have a 7 p.m. tipoff.

Div. III finals are slated for Feb. 24, 5 p.m. at San Marcos High School.

The Pointers are 8-13 on the season, finishing third in the City League with a 4-4 mark.

Both COVID and injuries have affected the team.

“We have not played one game with our complete roster,” Aros said. “And yet, we’ve lost four games by three points or less. It’s hard to know what you’re going to have week in and week out but these guys come in and grind every day and I’m really proud of them.”

Senior Ali Johnson leads the team in scoring with 16.1 points per game.

Aros cited his team’s bonding over the course of the season as its biggest improvement.

“They’ve learned to trust in each other, believe in each other and they have become a great group of friends,” Aros said of his 14-man roster. “Seeing them come together as a team instead of a group of individuals has really been great to see.”

Will that improvement give them a playoff boost?

“We’re a senior-laden team and I think we have a chance to make a little run in the playoffs,” Aros said.

Josh Aros is assisted by his father Dave Aros, a veteran and beloved teacher and coach at PLHS, and Shane Crumrine.