LAGUNA NIGUEL – Twenty boys’ teams will compete in 10 CIF Southern Section Playoff basketball this weekend.
Ten of those teams – across seven divisions – participated in the fourth Classic at Damien last December:
*Sierra Canyon (27-4), the top seed and defending champion, which takes on Mater Dei (25-6) in the Open Division championship game at 8:30 Friday night.
The Monarchs, who came into the playoffs as the No. 7 seed, are the last program to knock off Coach Andre Chevalier’s Trailblazers in a post-season game (during the 2018 Southern Section Open finale);
*Windward (23-6) is the top seed in Division 1 and takes on No. 2 Riverside Poly (26-5) for title Saturday night (8) at Azusa Pacific University;
*The Classic at Damien’s Gold and Silver Division winners on Dec. 20, Santa Clarita Christian (23-5) and St. Francis (26-7), respectively, battle for the 2AA title at noon Saturday at APU;
*Top seed Ribet Academy (25-3) faces Hesperia (24-4) for the 2A crown Saturday afternoon at 4 at APU. Ribet Academy was the Platinum consolation champion at Damien while Hesperia finished in fifth in the Silver Division;
*Hillcrest of Riverside (24-8) and Salesian of Los Angeles (27-4) play in the 3AA game at Godinez High in Santa Ana at 6 Saturday night. Hillcrest was in the Bronze Division, Salesian in the Silver;
*No. 2 seed Shadow Hills (25-3), the Damien Bronze champion, plays Price (24-8) for the 3A hardware Saturday night (8 o’clock) at Colony High in Ontario;
*And No. 2 seed Pius X/St. Matthias (26-6), which captured the first Damien Green Division crown, hooks up with top seed Oakwood (25-3) for the 4A championship at noon at Godinez.
An 11th Damien participant in the Platinum Division, No. 1 seed Fairfax (26-4), faces No. 2 seed and Western League-rival Westchester (21-8) in the L.A. City Open final Saturday night (7:30) at L.A. Southwest. It will be televised by KDOC.
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