LAGUNA NIGUEL – As expected, Coach Andre Chevalier’s Sierra Canyon High squad is the No. 1 seed in the CIF Southern Section’s boys basketball Open Division playoff field, announced from the section office in Los Alamitos early Saturday afternoon.
The Trailblazers (22-1) are part of a division that was expanded to 12, after another expansion brought the field from eight to 10 teams a year ago.
The 12 teams are spread, three apiece, over four pools, with action setting to tip Wednesday night at 7 o’clock and culminate in the Feb. 28 championship game at the Toyota Arena in Ontario.
The computer program utilized by the section to determine playoff entrant pecking order since last season listed Santa Margarita (26-3), Redondo Union (25-3) and Sherman Oaks Notre Dame (19-6) as the No.’s 2, 3 and 4 seeds, sitting atop of pools B, C and D, respectively.
Harvard-Westlake (No. 7 seed/22-5) and Crespi (No. 9/18-11) joined Sierra Canyon and Notre Dame as teams in the field from the Mission League, the first time one league has had that many in the Open playoffs.
Making the program’s first-ever Open appearance is Corona del Mar (No. 8/27-1), while Damien (No. 10/26-5) and Etiwanda (No. 11/26-2) of the Baseline League are in the open field for the first time in four years.
Rounding out the field are No. 5 St. John Bosco (20-7), No. 6 Corona Centennial (25-5) and No. 12 La Mirada (22-6).
Ten of the teams will advance to the State Regional playoffs, with each of the 12 teams guaranteed a minimum of three games.
Sierra Canyon, led by McDonald’s All-Americans Brandon McCoy Jr. (pictured) and Maximo Adams, is joined in pool A by Corona del Mar and Crespi.
Along with Santa Margarita, pool B includes Harvard-Westlake and Damien.
Redondo Union is challenged by Centennial and Etiwanda in pool C, while Notre Dame, St. John Bosco (led by another McDonald’s All-American, Christian Collins) and La Mirada wrap up in the field in pool D.
Seven of the Open teams played in the Dec. 26-30 Classic at Damien, Redondo Union, St. John Bosco, Centennial, Crespi, Damien and La Mirada in the Platinum Division, Etiwanda in the Gold Division.
Crean Lutheran (21-7), JSerra (19-12), St. Francis (20-8) and Inglewood (25-5) – led by Southern California’s fourth McDonald’s All-American, Jason Crowe Jr. – are No.’s 13-16 in the computer and make up the top four seeds in the Division 1.
Each Open team will have a bye in pool play, Corona del Mar, Harvard-Westlake, Centennial and St. John Bosco holding them Wednesday night.
In Wednesday openers, Sierra Canyon is home to Crespi (the Trailblazers won at home, in a Mission contest, 90-77, on Jan. 24); Damien visits Santa Margarita; Etiwanda is at Redondo Union; and Notre Dame plays host to La Mirada (in a rematch, on the same court, of a non-league game won by the host Knights, 77-60, on Nov. 20).
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