LAGUNA NIGUEL – Nineteen slots in 10 CIF Southern Section boys’ basketball playoff championship games are at stake Friday night in semifinal action across Southern California.
The only team that has secured a spot in a title game – regardless of the outcome of its Friday night game – is Eastvale Roosevelt.
Top-ranked in the BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal Top 30, Coach Steve Singleton’s 29-2 Mustangs, by way of Pool B victories over JSerra and St. Pius X/St. Matthias Academy, have one of the two reservations for the Open Division championship game set for Feb. 23 at Cal Baptist University in Riverside.
The Mustangs are at home Friday night against Mater Dei in their final pool-play contest. The Monarchs have lost to SPSMA and JSerra. A Mater Dei victory would mean that the winner of the JS-SPSMA contest would share 2-1 records with Roosevelt. But the Mustangs get the tiebreaker based upon their head-to-head victory.
The winner of the Pool A, St. John Bosco at Harvard-Westlake Friday night clash will be Roosevelt’s foe in Riverside on Feb. 23.
Those program’s had two post-season meetings last season, the Braves prevailing in a sectional Open game on Harvard-Westlake’s home court (62-55) and the Wolverines recovering 18 days later in a regional semifinal in Bellflower (69-64).
The division’s No.’s 1 and 2 seeds need Friday night victories to get to the Division 1 championship game at the Toyota Arena in Ontario on Feb. 24.
Top seed Notre Dame (No. 6 in the Top 30) plays host to 4 seed Redondo Union in Sherman Oaks while Coach D.J. Gay’s 2 seed Windward team takes its 17-game winning streak to La Verne to play 3 seed Damien.
The Notre Dame Knights closed the regular with three consecutive losses but have ended the seasons of Crean Lutheran, Riverside Poly and No. 19 Santa Margarita in the playoffs.
Coach Matt Sargeant’s team is led by one of the top 5 shooting guards anywhere in high school in University of Houston-bound Mercy Miller and features a dynamic junior point guard in Lino Mark.
The Sea Hawks – in the second season of Coach Reggie Morris Jr.’s second stint leading the program – have used their depth and scoring balance (via the likes of senior Devin Ringer, junior Hudson Mayes, sophomore S.J. Madison and freshman Chris Sanders) to move to within one win of a championship game.
Windward’s last loss came to Richmond Salesian (70-66) – the top-ranked team in Northern California – on Dec. 27 in a first-round game of the Platinum Division of the Classic at Damien.
Junior guard Gavin Hightower (pictured) scored 28 points, with six rebounds, five assists and five steals, in the Wildcats’ 73-66 playoff win over St. Francis on Feb. 9.
He had 12 points, 12 assists, 11 rebounds and the game-winning, fallaway jumper with a second to go in double overtime to edge Los Alamitos Tuesday night, 77-75.
Damien has a potent “inside-outside” offensive attack, with 7-foot junior Nate Garcia (18 and 20 points, respectively, in playoff wins over Crossroads and St. Bernard) establishing the positioning and power to the “inside” and the likes of 6-3 senior Xavier Clinton (24 and 26 in the same games) providing the sizzle and efficiency to the “outside”.
FRIDAY’S CIF SOUTHERN SECTION BASKETBALL
(all games tip at 7 p.m. unless noted)
Open Division
Pool A
St. John Bosco (24-6) at Harvard-Westlake (28-3)
Corona Centennial (20-12) at Sierra Canyon (25-3)
Pool B
Mater Dei (26-4) at Eastvale Roosevelt (29-2)
JSerra (25-5) vs. St. Pius X/St. Matthias Academy (23-6) at Warren High
D-1
Redondo Union (24-4) at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame (27-3)
Windward (27-3) at Damien (26-4)
D-2AA
Rolling Hills Prep (25-5) at Thousand Oaks (25-6)
St. Anthony (23-7) at Heritage Christian (22-8)
D-2A
San Gabriel Academy (20-9) at Marina (24-7)
Corona del Mar (25-6) at Long Beach Poly (23-8)
D-3AA
Hesperia (23-8) at La Habra (27-4)
St. Bonaventure (23-8) at Gardena Serra (19-12)
D-3A
Santa Barbara (25-5) at Bosco Tech (22-8)
Woodbridge (20-8) at Alemany (18-15)
D-4AA
Price (20-9) at Yeshiva (19-10)
Diamond Ranch (21-8) at Cerritos (20-10)
D-4A
Estancia (23-8) at Temecula Valley (17-13)
Norte Vista (16-11) at Temecula Hillcrest Christian (22-8)
D-5AA
Buckley (19-10) at El Segundo (22-9)
Dunn (16-8) at Castaic (17-14)
D-5A
Ontario (18-4) at Firebaugh (15-10)
Riverside Notre Dame (23-7) at Big Bear (23-5)
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