IRVINE — A lot of California-based high school teams, and their players, played against one another in front of a lot of college coaches Friday, Saturday, and Sunday on high school campuses throughout south Orange County.
So, consider it “mission accomplished” for the inaugural Boys’ California Live.
The event, run by the Southern California Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association, drew 160-plus teams over 10 divisions of bracket play.
Champions were captured by teams from:
*Salesian Richmond (SoCal Chevy Bracket/in a 56-53 upset of defending State Open champion Harvard-Westlake).
*San Jose Mitty (Chevy Silverado/57-51 over San Diego Montgomery).
*Corona Centennial (Advocates4Athletes/66-47 over Damien).
*Elk Grove (Sacramento suburb) Monterrey Trail (BallerTV/56-54 over San Jose Bellarmine).
*Riverside Poly (Passport/47-37 over San Mateo Serra).
*Rocklin (SCIBCA/57-54 over Concord Clayton Valley Charter).
*Manhattan Beach Mira Costa (Beach/d. South Pasadena, 64-57).
*Alemany (Sunshine/56-52 over St. Anthony).
*Arcadia (NHSBCA/d. San Diego Del Norte, 53-40).
*Lakewood (Destination Irvine/55-47 over Long Beach Rancho Dominguez).
Overall, it was — depending on your regional biases — a surprisingly impressive performance by the NorCal-based clubs, which won five of the championships.
And, based upon the opponents it knocked off in the semifinals and final, the most surprising of that bunch was Salesian.
The Salesian (OK, officially Salesian College Preparatory) Pride of Coach Bill Mellis cruised past SoCal’s Valencia and fellow Bay Area program Pinole Valley by 70-27 and 72-41, respectively in the first two rounds Friday and Saturday at Tustin High.
They built an 11-point advantage in the first half, then fell behind late by five points before coming back to knock Eastvale Roosevelt, 61-56, Saturday afternoon in their semifinal Saturday afternoon at Tustin.
Roosevelt (which beat Santa Margarita in the third-place game Sunday afternoon, 64-54) is a lock — or as much as a lock as anything can be in this era of high school basketball, four months before the start of the season — to be a Top 5-ranked team going into the 2023-24 season.
Coach Steve Singleton returns a major college guard prospect in Class of 2024 member Darnez Slater and added four transfers, led by junior-to-be Brayden Burries (an all-CIF Southern Section choice in 2021-22 at Riverside Poly).
No one in Southern California will after a better group of guards (with two other c/o 2025 transfers, Myles Walker, and Isaac Williamson also in the mix) than Singleton will next season.
And Sunday’s championship win for Salesian was even more attention-grabbing across the hoops’ universe (at least as it exists in the region).
Coach David Rebibo’s Harvard-Westlake program returns three starters (Trent Perry, Robert Hinton, and Nik Khamenia) and another player who often got starters’ minutes (Christian Horry) from a 33-2, State Open Division championship team.
The Wolverines (who knocked off Crean Lutheran, Clovis North and Santa Margarita in their first three games) fell behind 12-3 to start their title game Sunday morning at Irvine High before going up by eight points at intermission.
But the Pride, getting major contributions from everyone who played (notably, seniors-to-be Aaron Claytor, Zander Jimenez and De’Undrae Perteete, junior-to-be Alvin Loving and superb c/o 2026 prospect Elias Obenyah), used terrific half-court defense and near-flawless decision making and offensive execution to pull it out.
Jimenez, with a 4.6 Grade Point Average and defensive mentality and relentlessness that are nearly as impressive, sank four free throws in the final minute and a half for the Pride, with Horry missing a decent look at a 3-pointer that would have put things into overtime.
The teams are just one game apart in the “Powerade” bracket of the Section 7 this weekend in Phoenix.
Salesian opens with Florida powerhouse Oak Ridge of Orlando at 1:15 Friday afternoon in State Farm Stadium (home to the NFL Phoenix Cardinals).
Six hours later Harvard-Westlake takes on one of the top squads in Arizona, Basha of Chandler.
If each wins, they hook up in a “rematch” Saturday morning at 11:45. Should each get knocked into the consolation side of the bracket Friday, they will play Saturday at 4:45 in the afternoon.
The presence of Sage Hill transfer Carter Bryant in the Centennial lineup helped the Huskies beat Fresno San Joaquin Memorial, Branson, JSerra and, finally, Damien to bag their bracket title.
Although Coach Josh Giles has just one 2022-23 starter still around in 6-4 Eric Freeny (heavily recruited by multiple Pac 12 Conference programs), the addition of the 6-8 Bryant — along with a quality group of Class of 2026 players — should keep the Huskies in strong contention for a CIF SS Open crown next spring.
Bryant (pictured), who is committed to the University of Arizona, was dominant over large swaths of Sunday’s title game against a Damien squad that used the weekend to showcase a lot of ’24 “Open Division ingredients”.
Bryant scored 23 points, grabbed nine rebounds, and blocked three shots.
Damien, despite being without ’22-23 starting point guard Lucas Arrieta (sidelined this summer while rehabbing from spring knee surgery), rallied from 15 points down in the first half to stun Sacramento Capital Christian on Friday afternoon at Tustin, 59-58.
The Spartans got past Stockton’s Weston Ranch on Saturday afternoon (71-62) at Irvine High, then “upset” Tounde Yessoufou and State Open Division runner-up Santa Maria St. Joseph (76-68) later that evening.
Six-foot-11, 240-pound junior-to-be Nate Garcia and 6-3 c/o 2024 guard Xavier Clinton of the Spartans were two more of the many players making significant impressions on the many college coaches — from across the country — who were getting their initial first-hand looks at them over the weekend.
Garcia (22 points and 15 rebounds vs. Centennial) was the most formidable low-post presence at the event while Clinton (who hit the game-deciding 3-pointer with six seconds to go Friday) knocked in four 3s vs. Centennial and was among the best jump shooters anywhere over the weekend.
Centennial (vs. Utah State champion Corner Canyon of Draper at 3:45 Friday afternoon in the Powerade Division) and Damien (vs. Arbor View of Last Vegas at noon Friday in the NFHS Arizona Sports Commission Division) are also among the 60-plus California-based programs at the Section 7 this weekend.
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