SANTA ANA, Ca. – Even those cursory-level high school basketball followers will find an abundance of story-lines to their liking over the two-day, 21st Nike Extravaganza that will be hosted by Mater Dei High on Friday and Saturday.
Tickets can be purchased on the school’s ticket window (located on East-facing front of the Meruelo Athletic Center) beginning at 10 o’clock Friday morning.
The 13 games (including the 7 p.m. clash between the Mater Dei girls squad and its counterpart from Las Vegas Centennial) are divided into Friday ($12 general admission), Saturday morning ($12 general admission) and Friday afternoon/evening ($12 general admission and $22 reserved seating) sessions.
Heading the 24-team boys’ field are the top-ranked teams in the nation (Chino Hills, 23-0 going into its Baseline League game at Upland Friday night), as well Arizona (Phoenix Shadow Mountain), Nevada (18-6 Las Vegas Bishop Gorman), Northern California (18-1 Concord De La Salle) and San Diego (17-3 El Cajon Foothills Christian).
Ten of the first 19 squads in the latest BurlisonOnBasketball Southern California Top 25 ratings will also participate.
Three of the 24 selections to the 2016 McDonald’s All-American will be on display Saturday night, two of those hooking up at 7:15 when Chino Hills (UCLA-bound guard Lonzo Ball) and Bishop Gorman (Gonzaga-bound center Zach Collins) are scheduled to tip off.
The third All-American, Foothill Christian’s T.J. Leaf (scheduled to be a UCLA teammate of Ball’s), could be going head-up against another future Pac 12 Conference player when Michael Cage Jr. and Mater Dei face off at about 8:45 in the event’s finale.
The Meruelo Athletic Center has a listed capacity of 3,100 and it is expected to be jammed by the time Chino Hills and Bishop Gorman tip off, so it is strongly suggested that those who want a seat in the building for the final two games and not already in possession of tickets buy them as quickly as possible.
And when I write “as quickly as possible” that translates to “at 10 o’clock Friday morning if at all possible”.
Remember when I continually warned folks to get to Cerritos College “ASAP!” for the Fairfax State Preview last Saturday in order to see the battle of the two best teams in California – Chino Hills and Torrance Bishop Montgomery – at 7 that night?
Well, those of you who didn’t realize what “ASAP!” meant were disappointed when they showed up at 4 o’clock – and later – only to find that all seating was sold out three hours before tipoff.
The complete schedule (and BurlisonOnBasketball ranking, when applicable):
Friday: 4 p.m., L.A. Windward vs. San Juan Capistrano JSerra; 5:30, Bellflower St. John Bosco vs. Sun Valley Village Christian; 7 (girls), Mater Dei vs. Las Vegas Centennial; 8:30, No. 5 Mater Dei vs. Phoenix Shadow Mountain.
Saturday morning: 8:30 a.m., Ontario Colony vs. La Habra Sonora; 10, Corona Santiago vs. Palm Desert; 11:30, No. 13 Chino Hills Ayala vs. Anaheim Servite.
Saturday afternoon/evening: 1:15 p.m., No. 19 Santa Margarita vs. Etiwanda; 2:45, No. 11 Los Alamitos vs. No. 16 L.A. Fairfax; 4:15, No. 12 L.A. Westchester vs. No. 14 Orange Lutheran; 5:45, No. 10 Corona Centennial vs. Concord De La Salle; 7:15, No. 1 Chino Hills vs. Las Vegas Bishop Gorman; 8:45, No. 4 El Cajon Foothills Christian vs. No. 5 Mater Dei.
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