ONTARIO, Ca. – The annual State Preview Classic, presented by SBLive, has another outstanding boys’ basketball, nine-game field set for Saturday and scheduled to tip at 9 a.m.
Included among those contests are three in which both teams are rated in the BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal Top 30, with five others having one Top 30 squad.
The most significant of the games – relative to its potential impact upon the makeup and seeding for the CIF Southern Section’s eight-team Open Division playoff field – is set for 4:30, when No. 3 Eastvale Roosevelt (21-1) takes on No. 9 St. Pius X/St. Matthias (18-4).
That showdown includes strong contenders for SoCal Player of the Year in the respective classes of 2024 (Tyrone Riley of SP/SM) and 2025 (Brayden Burries of Roosevelt).
The other two “rated vs. rated” affairs feature No. 2 Mater Dei (21-1) vs. No. 24 Campbell Hall (8-13) at 7:30, with No. 13 West Ranch (16-7) facing No. 17 Rancho Cucamonga (14-8).
Another significant candidate – if not favorite – for SoCal Senior of the Years is Mercy Miller of Sherman Oaks Notre, which takes its 22-0 record into a 6 o’clock game against 11-10 Crean Lutheran.
The Knights are No. 4 in the current Top 30 but could leapfrog into the top spot when the next one is unveiled Sunday night, assuming at Saturday night win and largely on the strength of its victory Wednesday night at currently No. 1 Harvard-Westlake.
Another Player of the Year candidate, Jason Crowe Jr. of Lynwood High, leads the 15-7 Knights into a noon game against No. 8 Damien (18-4).
Crowe was the BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal Freshman of the Year last season after helping his team win the program’s first-ever state championship in Division V.
At the end of the Saturday night’s Southland action, just two weeks of the regular season remain before the CIF Southern Section and L.A. City Section playoff fields are unveiled.
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