ANAHEIM, Ca. – Last weekend’s Open Gym Premier Fall Preview served as a nifty bit of “one-stop shopping” as pertaining to get up-close-and-personal looks at what figure to be some of Orange County and much of the rest of Southern California’s top boys’ basketball teams for the 2021-22 season.
There was a significant hunk of the pool of programs that figure to make stout efforts to be part of the CIF Southern Section’s eight-team Open Division field in February.
Notable among those were defending champion Corona Centennial (which went 4-0 in the “Open” competition in Anaheim), as well as three others among that eight-team competition last spring in Damien, Mater Dei and St. John Bosco.
Coach Josh Giles’ Centennial team, which returns four starters from the team that was
21-2 (including junior guard Jared McCain, pictured), knocked off Mater Dei and Los Osos on Saturday and Stockton Lincoln (called “Port City Red” in this event) and Fairmont Prep on Sunday.
Gary McKnight’s Mater Dei program was 1-2-1 in the Open competition and also put another squad in the “Varsity” division where it went 3-1 (losing to Valley Christian, coached by all-time Mater Dei standout Tommy Lewis).
The Monarchs lost to Centennial in the Open before dropping a double-time overtime decision to West Ranch, toppling Stockton Lincoln and ending in a 59-deadlock with St. Anthony.
St. John Bosco, despite without several key players (sidelined with injuries/ailments), won both of its Open games on Saturday, knocking off Village Christian and Crean Lutheran.
Damien played just twice on Saturday, and – led by four key returnees, including University of Colorado-bound guard R.J. Smith – had found little in the way of obstruction by Alemany and Capistrano Valley.
Among the other teams there that could be firmly in the hunt for Open Division bids were West Ranch, Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks, St. Anthony, Los Altos, Saugus and Fairmont Prep.
Few teams in Southern California this season will have an offensive 1-2 punch the equal of that provided Notre Dame by way of senior (and Creighton-bound) guard Ben Shtolzberg 6-foot-7 junior forward Dusty Stromer.
They prevailed against two traditionally strong programs in Capistrano Valley and Eastvale Roosevelt.
And 6-8 senior Elijah Price of St. Anthony, over the course of both days and four Open games, was as impressive as any player in the building.
The “real” season is set to begin on Nov. 15.
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