RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA – Visiting teams hit .500 in Wednesday night’s 16 opening games of the CIF Southern Section Division 1 boys’ basketball playoffs.
But there was nothing “upsetting” in the Open Division, though, where the four visitors collectively whiffed.
The first four teams spit out of the CIF Southern Section’s computer, Sierra Canyon, Santa Margarita, Redondo Union and Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks, won their Open pool games by a collective margin of 86 points.
The four third seeds in the respective pools A (Crespi), B (Damien), C (Etiwanda) and D (La Mirada) hit the road again Friday night, for round 2 against the second seeds that drew byes Wednesday.
The only Open contest with an outcome that hadn’t already been hammered home going into the fourth quarter was the Sierra Canyon-Crespi “Clash of the Mission League squads”, during which the visiting Celtics trailed by just three points before the Trailblazers pulled away, 71-54, to improve to 23-1.
Coach Andre Chevalier’s squad, led by a couple of McDonald’s All-Americans (Brandon McCoy Jr. and Maximo Adams) and another half-dozen or more terrific players, will have a long weekend off – at least for practice, that is – before returning to game action in Chatsworth Tuesday night against Open Division newbie Corona del Mar (27-1), which plays host to Crespi (18-12) in Newport Beach Friday night.
Redondo Union (26-3) blistered Etiwanda (26-3), 74-31, Wednesday night, improving its win streak to 12 – with an average winning margin of 40.0 PPG in that stretch.
Coach Reggie Morris Jr.’s squad will be back at it at home Tuesday night to take on Corona Centennial (25-5), which plays host to Etiwanda Friday night.
Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks (one of a record four Mission League teams in the Open playoffs) improved to 20-6 Wednesday night after beating La Mirada (22-7), 76-60, for the second time this season while bringing an abrupt halt to the Matadores’ 14-game win streak.
While Notre Dame prepares for its Tuesday night game with St. John Bosco in Sherman Oaks, the Braves (20-7) play host to La Mirada Friday night in Bellflower.
The teams played on the same floor on Dec. 13, with the hosts prevailing, 62-51, in the championship game of the Braves’ Winter Classic.
In the fourth Open game played Wednesday night, the teams combined to miss 19 of 25 shots from the floor in a first quarter that ended with host Santa Margarita (27-3) in front of Damien (26-6), 11-7, with nine of those points coming from Georgia Tech-bound guard Kaiden Bailey’s first three jump shots of the contest.
Although he added a couple of buckets, Bailey turned mostly distributor in the second quarter with four assists as the Eagles padded their advantage to 14 points at intermission and led by as many as 21 points in the third quarter before prevailing, 81-71.
Even with potent Oregon State-bound post player Drew Anderson limited to three rebounds and a third-quarter layup before fouling out with 6:35 to go, Coach Justin Bell’s team still got double-figure scoring from five players.
Bailey led the way with 21 while forwards Brayden Kyman (three 3s) and Markee White (seven rebounds), and guard Rodney Westmoreland III (nine in the fourth quarter), added 13 apiece.
And another senior, 6-foot-4 Jacob Sears (pictured), showed Damien why the Eagles offer some nifty offensive firepower off the bench, as well.
Bell’s first sub didn’t take his first shot until the second quarter but then buried two 3s (the second with two seconds to go in the half), sandwiched around a layup, as he and White combined for 15 of the team’s 22 points.
Sears’ four 3s and 17 points were career bests and gave Harvard-Westlake Coach David Rebibo and his staff another element to prepare for going into Tuesday night.
“He’s such a great kid and has had such a great attitude,” said Bell.
“He would start (my note: and star) at a lot of other places, but he and his family love the school.”
The Spartans, who missed 16 of 23 shots from the field in the first half, scored 52 points after intermission but never got closer than the final margin.
Seniors Elijah Smith and Eli Garner led Coach Mike LeDuc’s squad with 25 and 23 points, respectively, with 22 of Smith’s coming in the second half.
In Division 1, the most notable of the “upsets” – at least via respective seeding – were Windward over host Bishop Montgomery (24-2 before the game), 77-61; No. 4 seed St. Francis (21-9) falling to Rancho Christian (20-9), 78-59; Pacific League co-champion Arcadia getting tripped up at home by Orange Lutheran (an at-large selection to the bracket from the Trinity League), 79-74.
And toss in Cypress (19-10), the third-place representative from the Crestview, edging San Gabriel Academy (19-9), 61-58, at Jefferson Middle School which is located across the street from the SGA campus.
San Gabriel Academy won the State Division III championship last March.
The Trinity League went 5-0 Wednesday night (the sixth member is St. John Bosco), with JSerra (72-66 in overtime over visiting Pasadena in D-1), Mater Dei (83-63 against Providence in D-2) and Servite (70-66 in OT vs. visiting Maranatha, also D-2) joining Santa Margarita and Orange Lutheran with opening-night wins.
Orange Lutheran (vs. Rolling Hills Prep) and Mater Dei (against Westlake) are at home Friday night with Servite (in Eastvale against Roosevelt) and JSerra (vs. Loyola, which knocked off host Los Alamitos Wednesday) on the road.
Leave a Reply