Classic at Damien well-repped in high playoff seeds

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LA VERNE, Ca. – The second Classic at Damien was the best post-Christmas high school basketball tournament in the western U.S.

Here are some of the reasons why, courtesy the CIF Southern and L.A. City Section playoff brackets:

*Four of the programs that participated in the 16-team Platinum Bracket (champion Etiwanda, along with third-place Santa Margarita, fourth-place St. John Bosco and consolation champion Rancho Christian) were selected to the Southern Section’s eight-team Open Division bracket.

Two other Platinum squads, Birmingham and Taft, are in the eight-team L.A. City Open field while a third, Vista, is expected to be a part of the San Diego Section Open field when it’s unveiled this weekend.

*Classic at Damien Platinum teams were seeded Nos. 1 (Oak Park), 3 (Pasadena), 5 (Corona Centennial), 6 (Damien), 7 (Eastvale Roosevelt), 8 (Long Beach Poly) and 12 (Alemany) in the Southern Section’s Division I.

Oak Park and Pasadena received byes but the others won their first-round games Wednesday night.

And two programs from the Classic at Damien Gold Division, Dominguez and Rancho Verde, also won first-round D-1 games Wednesday night.

*Silver champion Los Altos was the No. 1 seed in the Southern Section’s D-1, with Cajon (which was in the Platinum Division) and another Silver squad, Colony, seeded 5 and 6 (Colony was upset Wednesday night by Upland).

*Platinum runner-up St. Bernard, Silver champion Muir and Gold consolation champion Santa Barbara San Marcos were the 1, 2 and 3 seeds in the SS’s 2A bracket (St. Bernard was upset by Mission Prep Wednesday night).

*Leuzinger, a Gold Division team at Damien, is the No. 7 seed in 3AA and plays host to Long Beach Wilson in a second-round game Friday night.

*Notre Dame Riverside (Gold) and Culver City (Platinum) are 1-2 in 3A.

*And another Gold bracket team at Damien, Rolling Hills Prep, bagged the top seed in 4A.

“Classic at Damien” participants in head-to-head games Friday night include are Santa Margarita at Etiwanda (Open) and Corona Centennial at Alemany (D1).