Top seeds go chalk during MaxPreps openers Friday

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RANCHO MIRAGE, Ca. – The first day of Open Division play in the MaxPreps Holiday Classic at Rancho Mirage featured plenty of impressive performances from both teams and individuals.

There just wasn’t anything approaching a “surprise”.

The top four seeds won their Round of 16 games Friday by an average margin of 17 points.

Santa Ana, CA, Mater Dei – which toppled American Fork of Utah, 63-46, in a game that wasn’t a wrap until Friday night at about 11:30 – played twice. The Monarchs also knocked off the host Rancho Mirage Rattlers in a tune-up of sorts, 85-56.

Those victories by top-seed Chatsworth, CA, Sierra Canyon, No. 2 Mater Dei, No. 3 Plano, TX, Prestonwood Christian Academy and No. 4 Etiwanda, CA helped set the quarterfinal table with some tasty dishes for Saturday.

Sierra Canyon (62-55 over Sacramento) takes on fellow San Fernando Valley program Mission Hills Alemany (63-58 over another Southland squad, San Juan Capistrano Saddleback Valley Christian) at 3 o’clock.

Etiwanda (68-49 over San Jose Mitty) faces Canary Islands-based academy team Oakley (79-69, in double overtime, over Milwaukee Rufus King) at 4:30.

At approximately 6 – barring any other OTs – Prestonwood Christian Academy (76-51 against Folsom of Northern California) is challenged by Mableton Pebblebrook (69-67 over La Verne Damien in Southern California).

And, in the final quarterfinal Saturday night, Mater Dei and Hayward Moreau Catholic hook up at approximately 7:30 in a “SoCal vs. NorCal” battle between parochial programs.

“Impressive” is certainly in the eye of the beholder and each of the teams moving onto the right side of the bracket for Saturday at least stretches of play that can be slotted in the “impressive” category.

But, from my perspective at least, the team that was “impressive” – at both ends of the floor – for the longest period on Friday was Etiwanda.

The Eagles of Coach Dave Kleckner, who lost to Mater Dei – in OT – in a California State Southern Regional Open Division semifinal last March, start a pair of posts in 6-foot-9 Jordan Naughton (Wyoming) and 6-6 Kameron Edwards (Pepperdine) who signed with NCAA DI programs last month.

But the player that Mitty had the most difficulty trying to defend Friday evening was an unsigned senior in 6-4 Delewis Johnson, who hit five of six shots from behind the arc in the first half and finished with 28 points.

Some potentially cool individual matchups for Friday include Oakland Soldiers Rex Pflueger (a 6-5, Notre Dame-bound senior at Mater Dei) vs. Oscar Frayer (a 6-6 junior at Moreau Catholic who has already committed to Cal), and junior point guards Devearl Ramsey (Sierra Canyon) vs. Shacq Dawkins (Alemany).