LAGUNA NIGUEL – Southern California high school playoff hoops go full-bore Wednesday night, with the CIF Southern and L.A. City sections tipping off in all but their Open Divisions.
Among the teams in action Wednesday night are the CIF SS’s Division 1 top seed, Notre Dame.
The Knights (24-3), No. 6 in the BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal Top 30, are scheduled to make a 59-mile, south-bound trek on the 5 to Irvine to take on host Crean Lutheran (16-12) at 7 o’clock.
For those wondering why Mercy Miller-led Notre Dame is on the road – and traveling a long one – in its opener as the No. 1 seed, it’s because the Knights entered the playoffs as the Mission League’s No. 4 representative while the Saints shared the Empire League crown with Cypress.
It’s a rematch of a game played at Colony High in Ontario on Jan. 20, which Notre Dame won, 63-51, behind the 24-point effort of the University of Houston-bound Miller.
The No.’s 2 (Windward), 3 (Damien), 4 (Redondo Union), 6 (La Mirada) and 7 (Los Alamitos) seeds drew the five first-round byes in a division with just 26 entrants.
Since only league champions can draw byes, Notre Dame, and No. 5 seed Etiwanda (the runner-up to Damien in the Baseline League) are in action Wednesday while those with the byes will play host to games Friday night dictated by the outcome of Wednesday games.
Along with Coach Matt Sargeant’s Notre Dame squad, other D 1 teams making long drives on Wednesday include:
*Riverside Poly (38 miles west to Fairmont Prep in Anaheim).
* Edison (74 miles north from Huntington Beach to West Ranch in Valencia).
*Santa Margarita (125 miles northwest to Oxnard High).
*Village Christian (53 miles east from Sun Valley to Etiwanda).
*Walnut (47 miles southeast to Rancho Verde in Moreno Valley).
*Brentwood (52 miles southeast from Los Angeles to Foothill in Santa Ana).
*Crossroads (102 miles southeast from Santa Monica to Rancho Christian in Temecula).
*Rancho Cucamonga (34 miles southwest to Canyon in Anaheim) and
*St. Francis (62 miles south from La Canada to Pacifica Christian in Newport Beach).
The “just-around-the-corner (relatively speaking) D 1 tilt has St. Bernard in Playa del Rey playing host to Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach (about an eight-mile north-bound trek for the Mustangs).
Me?
I’m going to be 73 north- and 55 south-bound for Newport Beach and the St. Francis-Pacifica Christian clash – a quite manageable 20.4 miles, from my driveway in Laguna Niguel to the parking lot at Pacifica Christian.
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