The Eastvale Roosevelt and Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High boys’ basketball teams meet for the second time this season Saturday, with a CIF Southern Section Open Division championship the prize when they tip off at 6:30 Saturday night in Ontario’s Toyota Arena.
But the clash between the 31-2 Mustangs and 26-6 Knights is just one of six Southern Section title games that will be played in the building, beginning with the 9:30 a.m. boys’ 4AA game pitting Ramona (26-6) and Garden Grove’s Santiago (21-11).
Things wrap when Ontario Christian (28-1) and Etiwanda (25-4) teams hook up in the girls’ Open final at 8:30.
The championship finals in the Southern, L.A. City and San Diego sections Friday and Saturday set the stage for the State Regional pairings that are expected to be released early Sunday evening.
Division’s I-V will open on Tuesday, and follow on Thursday, next Saturday and March 11, with the State championship games held in Sacramento on March 14&15.
The Open games will be played on Wednesday, next Saturday and March 11.
Here are my thoughts on some of the Friday and Saturday games, beginning with . . .
L.A. City Open
Friday, 8 p.m., L.A. Southwest College
Chatsworth (22-7) vs. Westchester (21-9)
The Section’s two-best teams – and players, the sons of former NBA standouts Gilbert Arenas and Trevor Ariza, respectively – hook up for the second time this season.
USC-bound Alijah Arenas and Chatsworth knocked off junior Tajh Ariza and the Comets on Westchester’s home court, 58-56, on Nov. 19.
Arenas scored 25 points – on nine of 24 from the field and five of 11 free throws – to go with 12 rebounds and six turnovers before fouling out with 30 seconds to go.
And Ariza scored 14 points while missing 14 of 20 shots from the floor with nine rebounds, three blocked shots and four turnovers.
The Chancellors and Comets come into the game with respective 10- and 14-game win streaks.
It’s likely both teams will end up in Southern Regional’s Division I bracket on Sunday.
Southern Section
At the Toyota Arena
2-AA
1 p.m.
Anaheim Fairmont Prep (21-9) vs. Newport Pacifica Christian (23-7)
The teams shared the San Joaquin League championship at 5-1, Fairmont Prep winning in Newport on Jan. 18, 60-56, and the Mariners returning the favor in Anaheim 10 days later, 67-55.
It’s the first sectional championship game for the programs since 2019, when Fairmont Prep prevailed, 63-51, for the 4AA crown.
Each of the squads is led by one of the most underrated players in Southern California, the Huskies in 6-foot-9 junior David Abisogun and the Mariners in 6-4 E.J. Spillman, who scored 34 points in the double-overtime, semifinal win over Centennial in Corona last Friday night.
Division 1
4:30 p.m.
Los Alamitos (24-8) vs. Mira Costa (29-3)
The Griffins (82-57 vs. Crean Lutheran) and Mustangs (61-40 over Santa Barbara) jetted into the title game via overwhelming semifinal wins at home last week.
The programs split the championship games in the Ocean View Tournament of Champions in 2022 and ’23, the Mustangs taking the Nov. 20, 22023, showdown (53-45) and the Griffins prevailed nearly a year later (Nov. 18), 68-56.
The programs’ style of play mirrors each other, via transition offense highlighted by crisp ball movement and jump shooting, and full-court pressure defense.
Open
6:30
Roosevelt vs. Notre Dame
The Regional (March 11) and State (four nights later in Sacramento) may prove differently but – at least as of now – these are the two best teams in the state.
The Mustangs – runners-up to Harvard-Westlake in the sectional and regional finals a year ago – didn’t have to leave their home court in their Open Pool wins over Heritage Christian, Redondo Union, Sierra Canyon and St. John Bosco.
The Knights, in contrast, had to bag road wins at Santa Margarita (which shared the Trinity league title with St. John Bosco) and Harvard-Westlake (which knocked off Notre Dame twice in Mission League play) to get into the program’s first-ever Open title game.
Roosevelt trailed by 15 points after the first quarter before rolling the Knights, 76-58, in the Dec. 21 final of the Platinum Division of the Tarkanian Classic at Bishop Gorman High in Las Vegas.
But Notre Dame was missing a key element of its squad – Rutgers-bound guard, Lino Mark – for all but the first two minutes of that contest because of a hamstring strain.
This says a lot: Brayden Burries (senior) and Cameron Anderson (freshman) of Roosevelt, and Tyran Stokes (junior) and NaVorro Bowman (sophomore) of Notre Dame are strong candidates for BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal Players of ’23-24 in their respective classes.
3-AA
At Huntington Beach Edison
8 p.m.
Sage Hill (19-9) vs. Knight (25-5)
Ala the Pacifica Christian-Fairmont Prep clash, each of these squads are paced by much-undervalued players in 6-10 Jackson Cryst (head for top-ranked Long Beach State’s volleyball program and, possibly, a spot on the 2028 USA Olympic team) of Sage Hill and 6-3 Da’Vian Brooks (pictured) of Knight, one of the Southland’s top unsigned guards.
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