LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – In essence, it’s “one-stop shopping” for those wanting to see the four best high school basketball teams in California in a three-hour or so stretch of one night and in one building.
The CIF Southern Section’s administrative decision of a few weeks ago to book the section’s Open Division championship semifinals USC’s Galen Center – with its seating capacity of 10,800 – proved astute Tuesday night when the division’s top four seeds each won their respective second-round games.
The victories set up a Friday night 7 o’clock game between top seed Chatsworth Sierra Canyon (27-1) and No. 4 Torrance Bishop Montgomery (25-2), followed by clash between No. 2 Chino Hills (29-1) and No. 3 Santa Ana Mater Dei (30-1) at approximately 8:30.
According to the Southern Section, as of early Wednesday afternoon approximately 3,500 tickets had already been sold.
Advance purchase tickets for adults ($15) can be purchased on-line at www.galentix.com.
Student tickets (must show valid ID) and children (ages 5 to 13) are $10, with children younger than 5 admitted free. Those tickets can only be purchased on Friday at the Galen Center box office (3400 Figueroa at the corner of Jefferson and Figueroa).
On-site parking is $12.
Each of the aforementioned programs reached the Southern Section’s Open Division semifinals a year ago, with Sierra Canyon upending Bishop Montgomery (78-69, at Simi Valley High) and Chino Hills smashing Mater Dei (102-54, at Ayala High in Chino Hills).
Eight days later Chino Hills rolled past Sierra Canyon (105-83) in the Honda Center in the championship game then powered its way to four more wins and a state title to finish 35-0 as the Lonzo Ball-propelled squad proved to be one of the most dominant teams in California history.
Ball has led UCLA to a 24-3 record en route to his being one of the first few players selected in the June 22 NBA Draft.
But many of the same on-court “faces” of the four programs remain the same a year later.
Chino Hills returned four starters in Ball’s brothers, senior LiAngelo and sophomore LaMelo, as well as 6-foot-5 mega-athlete Eli Scott and 6-9 Onyeka Okongwu – the best “big” sophomore in the western portion of the USA.
Bishop Montgomery returned each of its five starters, led by 6-5 Ethan Thompson, a strong candidate for State Player of the Year.
Sierra Canyon welcomed backed four starters, including three-time all-CIF forward Cody Riley.
Spencer Freedman – the best junior point guard in California and first-team all-Open Division as a sophomore – was the only returning “full-time” starter for Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight.
But now-seniors Justice Sueing, Matt Weyand and Miles Brookins, as well as current juniors Harrison Butler and Michael Wang, also started at times or often played “starters’ minutes” for Mater Dei a year ago.
Among the newcomers for the respective programs, the most notable are Steph Gilling, who took over as Chino Hills’ head coach last spring when Steve Baik became the head guy at L.A. Fairfax, and two players.
And it’s those two juniors who have created so much buzz about these semifinal “power” showdowns.
Six-nine Marvin Bagley III, who was ineligible after he transferred to Sierra Canyon in early January of last year, has made his impact on the Trailblazers this season as befitting a player considered one of the two best prospects (along with Zion Williamson of South Carolina) in the national Class of 2018.
And, since transferring to Mater Dei (from Kansas City) and making his debut in a Monarchs’ uniform on Jan. 20, 7-2 Bol Bol (the son of the late NBA player, Manute Bol) has played in 10 games while averaging 17.8 points, 8.5 rebounds and 3.1 blocked shots per game.
Bol wasn’t with the program when the Monarchs fell to Chino Hills, 84-73, in the Dec. 20 championship game of the National Division of the Tarkanian Classic at Bishop Gorman High in Las Vegas.
Of course, the championship game of the Southern Section’s Open Division (scheduled for March 4 in the Honda Center in Anaheim) will not mean that these four squads have seen the last of each other.
They almost assuredly will be the top four seeds – the order as a result of what happens on Friday night and March 4 – in the Southern portion of the Open Division when the state playoffs begin on the second week of March.
So that means that the ultimate winner on the night of March 4 is likely going to have to knock off some combination of two of the other three current SS semifinalists just to represent the South in the state championship game – quite the task, indeed.
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