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LAGUNA NIGUEL – The Harvard-Westlake and St. Anthony programs will make their first appearances in the CIF Southern Section Open Division boys’ basketball playoffs, brackets for which were unveiled from the Southern Section Administration office in Los Alamitos early Sunday.

In no great surprise, defending champion Sierra Canyon was the top seed in the eight-team field, followed by Corona Centennial, Rancho Christian and Etiwanda.

The last of the selections was locked in Saturday night, when Ribet Academy was knocked off by Rancho Christian at Cerritos College and cleared the way for the St.

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NORWALK – Rancho Christian High has the only California-based boys’ basketball program to knock off two-time State Open Division-champion Sierra Canyon in nearly two years.

And the current edition of Coach Ray Barefield’s Eagles had one final tune-up Saturday night before starting on the road to dethrone Trailblazers when the Southern Section Open playoffs begin Friday night.

McDonald’s All-American Evan Mobley went for 19 points, 16 rebounds, five assists and three blocked shots to help the Eagles (No. 3 in the BurlisonOnBasketball Top 25) knock off No.

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NORWALK – The second annual SoCal Finale – a four-game affair including some of the best boys’ basketball teams from California – tips off Saturday afternoon at Cerritos College at 3:30.

Opening things are “NorCal vs. SoCal” clash of Oakland Bishop O’Dowd (16-7) and Renaissance Academy (19-8).

The NorCal squad has won 11 in a row since dropping a 67-66 decision in overtime to St. John Bosco (No. 7 in this week’s BurlisonOnBasketball Top 25) on Jan. 4.

And the Altadena-based Wildcats (19-8) are No. 20 and have beaten fellow Top 25 members St.

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ENCINO – Two dominant performances led the Chaminade and Harvard-Westlake squads to Mission League boys basketball semifinal playoff victories Wednesday night at Crespi High.

The squads’ respective 83-78 (over St. Francis in Wednesday’s opener) and 91-73 (against Alemany) victories propelled the Eagles and Wolverines into a Friday night (7:30) final at Crespi – a game scheduled to be televised by KDOC.

It will be a rematch of a league game won by host Harvard-Westlake, 76-66, on Jan. 29.

There has only been one round of league play (there are seven teams, give each six games) since the Mission League adopted a post-season tournament for last season.

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SANTA ANA – All things considered, notably quality of opponent and the magnitude of what the stakes were, the Mater Dei High boys’ basketball team turned in its best quarter of the season Tuesday night.

And it enabled to the Monarchs to take a couple of figurative big steps.

The 60-54 victory over the visiting St. John Bosco Braves gave Coach Gary McKnight’s squad a share of another (Trinity) league championship – one the Monarchs can get win, outright, with a win in a Trinity- and regular-season finale at JSerra Thursday night.

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