Mikey comes to Inland Empire on the first night of state regional play

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LAGUNA NIGUEL – The opening round of CIF Southern Regional boys’ basketball playoff action gets underway Tuesday night, in all but the Open Division.

With just five teams in the Open (as is the case in the Northern playoffs), the Southern Section’s West Ranch (29-2) visits San Diego Wednesday night to take on that section’s Open champion, St. Augustine (27-4).

The winner of that clash visits Corona Saturday evening for a semifinal with three-time Southern Section Open champion Centennial – which edged St. John Bosco, 58-56, in last Saturday night’s title game in the Honda Center.

The other semi will also be played Saturday night, in Bellflower, where St. John Bosco (26-6) plays host to Harvard-Westlake (30-2).

CIF SS D-1 winner Mater Dei – which captured a state-record 24^th sectional title under Gary McKnight Saturday with its victory over Etiwanda – is the No. 5 seed in the Open Division and earned a home game against La Costa Canyon, the No. 4 overall seed from the San Diego Section.

First eight seeds in DI are all Southern Section programs, with Notre Dame, Bishop Montgomery, Sierra Canyon, and St. Bernard dropping from the eight-team Open regional field and landing in the top four spots.

Canyon of Anaheim dropped from D1 in sectional play (where it lost to finalist Etiwanda) and became the top D-II seed. The Comanches play host to L.A. City Open team King/Drew in their opener Tuesday night.

The St. Pius X/St. Matthias Academy Warriors (29-4), after toppling La Serna (79-48) at Colony High Saturday for their 21^st consecutive win and the CIF SS 3AA crown, were “rewarded” by the State with a move to D II.

They’ll have a home game on their Downey campus against L.A. City Open semifinalist Westchester.

And, in perhaps the most intriguing matchup of Tuesday night, CIF SS D-1 runner-up Etiwanda is at home to take on San Diego’s San Ysidro – better known as the “Border Boyz”, and led by Mikey Williams, with a variety of ways to get buckets and holder of some 6 million Instagram followers.