LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. — Eight teams from among the first 13 in the updated BurlisonOnBasketball Top 30 SoCal ratings — including No.’s 1, 2&3 squads — will participate in the 72nd Ryse Williams/Pacific Shores, which tips off at 3:30 Tuesday afternoon at Redondo Union High.
The Southland’s top pre-Christmas high school hoops event also includes six other squads from among the Top 30 that will participate in single game “showcase” (non-tournament) competition that runs five days thru Saturday evening.
Action tips at 3:30 Tuesday afternoon with No. 30 Long Beach Poly taking on Lawndale in Redondo’s main gymnasium.
Then, No. 9 St. Bernard follows vs. Beverly Hills at 5.
What follows is the best 1-2 punch of high-profile games on one court in Southern California during the first two-plus weeks of the season, with No. 3 Eastvale Roosevelt facing No. 11 JSerra at 6:30 and No. 1 Harvard-Westlake (the defending State Open Division champion, which has knocked off four foes by an astonishing margin of 45 ppg) challenged by No. 12 (and 7-0) La Mirada at 8 o’clock.
In the lone game in the school’s auxiliary (superior in both seating and esthetics to most high school gyms in Southern California), No. 19 Santa Margarita plays Santa Monica at 5:30.
Other Top 30 squads playing during the week at the event are No.’s 2 St. John Bosco (Wednesday, at 8, vs. San Gabriel Academy); 10 Redondo; 13 Damien; 17 Windward; 18 Heritage Christian; 25 Crean Lutheran and 27 Saint Anthony.
*The overall strength of the Big VIII, Del Rey, Mission and Trinity leagues made itself evident over the first two weeks and is expected to prevail through the regular season and playoffs.
The first nine teams in the updated Top 30 come from those leagues via Harvard-Westlake, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, and Sierra Canyon (Mission); St. John Bosco and Mater Dei (Trinity); Roosevelt and Corona Centennial (Big VIII) and Del Rey (Saint Bernard and Saint Pius X/Saint Matthias (Del Rey).
The Mission also checks into the ratings with No. 16 Crespi, and the Del Rey has one of the SoCal sleepers (No. 27 Saint Anthony).
*How good is No. 15 Los Alamitos?
Good enough to win its first seven games by a scoring margin of 22.4 ppg, one of those wins coming against No. 21 Mira Costa in the championship game of the Jim Harris Memorial at Ocean View High on Nov. 18.
Coach Nate Berger’s junior-dominated Griffins look to have two significant tests to see if the program will earn a CIF Southern Section Open Division bid for the second time next February.
One of those will come Wednesday night when they visit Corona for a 6:30 game at No. 5, Carter Bryant– and Eric Freeny-led Centennial.
The other is set for Jan. 27, when the Griffins take on host and No. 4 Mater Dei in the Nike Extravaganza.
The Griffins may not win either game. But it’s safe to say they will not go into either gym ill-prepared or intimidated.
*And no one will ever accuse La Mirada Coach Randy Oronoz of manipulating his schedule with “guaranteed wins”.
The Matadores, who lost to Rancho Christian in the CIF SS 2-AA title game last February, edged No. 13 Damien in the Battle for Rosecrans final on Nov. 18 and play top-ranked Harvard-Westlake Tuesday night and No. 19 Santa Margarita (Thursday night) at Redondo.
They also scheduled games with No. 8 Saint Pius X/St. Mathias on Dec. 15 and will play in the Dec. 4-9 “Braves Winter Classic” at St. John Bosco and Dec. 26-30 “Classic at Damien” and will face the likes of Lynwood and Mayfair in the Gateway League.
You’re a bold man, Coach Oronoz!
Top 30
Team/Previous rating Record
- Harvard-Westlake (1) 4-0
- John Bosco (2) 1-0
- Roosevelt (5) 5-0
- Mater Dei (3) 2-0
- Corona Centennial (4) 2-2
- Sherman Oaks Notre Dame (9) 4-0
- Sierra Canyon (10) 4-0
- Saint Pius/St. Matthias (13) 1-0
- Saint Bernard (15) 2-0
- Redondo Union (17) 2-0
- JSerra (18) 4-0
- La Mirada (19) 7-0
- Damien (6) 5-1
- Etiwanda (20) 1-0
- Los Alamitos (22) 7-0
- Crespi (24) 5-0
- Windward (7) 2-1
- Heritage Christian (12) 3-2
- Santa Margarita (14) 1-1
- Campbell Hall (8) 0-2
- Mira Costa (21) 4-1
- Rancho Cucamonga (25) 2-0
- West Ranch (16) 1-2
- Riverside Poly (26) 0-0
- Crean Lutheran (11) 1-2
- Rancho Christian (23) 4-3
- Saint Anthony (nr) 5-0
- Foothill (28) 3-2
- Anaheim Canyon (29) 4-1
- Long Beach Poly (30) 1-2
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