LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – High school basketball’s 2014-15 season – Southern California-style – tips off Monday afternoon at Redondo Union with the 63rd Dijon Thompson Pacific Shores Tournament.
The 16-team field includes seven squads selected in BurlisonOnBasketball’s preseason SoCal Top 25, topped by the host Sea Hawks (No. 6) and Long Beach Poly (7) – the top two seeds in the event.
Rounding out the top four seeds are No. 3 Compton (9 in the Top 25) and No. 4 L.A. Westchester (16).
The eight first-round games will be played, staggered by a half hour, in the school’s main and auxiliary gymnasiums, beginning with the 3 o’clock game between Compton and North Hollywood Campbell Hall in the auxiliary gym and the 3:30 contest pitting Palos Verdes Peninsula and Westchester.
Five of the programs in the field participated in the first-ever CIF Southern Section Open Division playoffs last spring, including Redondo Union. The Sea Hawks return 11 lettermen, including starters in juniors Leland Green and Cameron Williams, and Cameron High, and were joined by 6-foot-9 sophomore Billy Preston (who played the first month of last season before checking out of St. John Bosco).
Poly returns three starters from the squad that won the Southern Section’s IAA championship last spring, including senior point guard Ke’Jhan Feagin, the runner-up in balloting by head coaches for the 2013-14 Moore League Player of the Year.
Eight games will be played at Redondo on Monday. The teams take Tuesday off – the Sea Hawks’ Southern Section IAA girls’ volleyball championship squad plays host to a State Division I playoff first-round contest with Palisades that evening.
Second-round championship and consolation bracket action will be played Wednesday, with the tourney field resting on Thanksgiving before returning to play Friday.
The first-round matchups follow, as does the BurlisonOnBasketball preseason Southern California Top 25:
63rd DIJON THOMPSON PACIFIC SHORES TOURNAMENT
(Monday& Wednesday; Friday & Saturday/at Redondo Beach/Redondo High)
- (all Southern California schools) Monday: Main gym: 3:30 p.m., Palos Verdes Peninsula vs. L.A. Westchester; 5, Lakewood Mayfair vs. Calabasas; 6:30, Long Beach Poly vs. Woodland Hills Taft; 8, Redondo Beach Redondo vs. Harbor City Narbonne; Auxiliary gym: 3 p.m., Compton vs. N. Hollywood Campbell Hall; 4:30, Bellflower St. John Bosco vs. Newhall Hart; 6, Lawndale vs. Inglewood; 7:30, Gardena Serra vs. Santa Monica.
Top 25 with 2013-14 records
- Chatsworth Sierra Canyon (Southern Section) 29-4
- Etiwanda (SS) 27-5
- Corona Centennial (SS) 29-4
- Santa Ana Mater Dei (SS) 35-0
- Chino Hills (SS) 29-6
- Redondo Beach Redondo (SS) 25-6
- Long Beach Poly (SS) 26-8
- Torrance Bishop Montgomery (SS) 28-6
- Compton (SS) 25-8
- La Verne Damien (SS) 22-7
- Riverside JW North (SS) 27-2
- Bellflower St. John Bosco (SS) 23-11
- A. Fairfax (L.A. City) 22-11
- Pasadena Maranatha (SS) 14-14
- A. Cathedral (SS) 24-6
- A. Westchester (LA) 30-7
- A. Price (SS) 22-8
- Sun Valley Village Christian (SS) 27-5
- Carlsbad La Costa Canyon (San Diego Section) 28-6
- Orange Lutheran (SS) 14-15
- Gardena Serra (SS) 22-10
- A. Windward (SS) 23-10
- Rosemead Cantwell-Sacred Heart (SS) 23-9
- Mission Hills Alemany (SS) 21-10
- Lawndale (SS) 20-9
20 others who could crack this list: (alphabetical) Anaheim Canyon (SS), Calabasas (SS), Diamond Bar Diamond Ranch (SS), Eastvale Roosevelt (SS), El Cajon Foothills Christian (SD), Glendora (SS), Huntington Beach Edison (SS), Inglewood (SS), La Habra Sonora (SS), Lakewood Mayfair (SS), L.A. Loyola (SS), Long Beach Millikan (SS), Los Alamitos (SS), Lynwood (SS), Newhall Hart (SS), San Diego Morse (SD), San Diego St. Augustine (SD), San Diego Torrey Pines (SD), Santa Monica (SS) and West Hills Chaminade (SS).
Frank you are the best of all time!!