Archives

  ETIWANDA – “Big O” has been locked in as Chino Hills senior Onyeka Okongwu’s moniker for about as long as he’s been a dominant force on the high school hoops scene – basically, since November of his freshman year.

   But, after leading his team to a stunning, come-from-behind, 49-47 victory over host and top seed Etiwanda Tuesday night in the State Southern Regional DI final, it’s apparent that at least one other tag would be appropriate for the 6-foot-9, USC-bound Okongwu:

  Mr. March.

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  NORWALK, Ca. – National ratings for middle-school players are always more than a bit nebulous, at best.

   That being established, it’s difficult imagining there being a more dominant eighth-grader anywhere than was Baye Fall during the seventh Pangos Junior All-American Camp that wrapped up Sunday afternoon at Cerritos Community College.

   The 6-foot-9 Fall, who attends Lincoln Charter School in Denver and came to the U.S. from Senegal about a year or so ago, crushed the competition and capped his two-day performance with 13 points, 14 rebounds and six blocked shots (stats courtesy @devin_ugland) in the “Best of the Best” all-star game.

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  RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA – They’re future college basketball programs may have been battling one another some 68 or so miles away in Westwood.

   But, while UCLA eventually knocked off its USC counterpart in overtime Thursday night, a future Bruin and soon-to-be Trojan teammate to give their Santa Margarita High team to another playoff victory.

   USC-bound Max Agbonkpolo (28) and Jake Kyman (22) – who signed with UCLA in November – combined for 50 points as the Eagles toppled El Cajon Foothills Christian, 76-66, in the second round of the State Southern Regional Division I playoffs.

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Two months after its conclusion, the 2018 Classic at Damien continues to demonstrate – by many of its entrants – why it was easily the best post-Christmas basketball tournament in the west.

  Fourteen of its participants are in Thursday night’s second round of the State Southern Regional playoffs, with 13 of among the 16 teams still in action in Divisions I&II.

   Three of the Division I quarterfinals feature “all-Classic matchups”:

   No. 8 seed Birmingham (which was winless in four CAD Platinum games but advanced to the semifinals of the L.A.

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TORRANCE – The Mater Dei High boys’ basketball team didn’t venture to Cal Baptist University in Riverside as a participant in either of the CIF Southern Section’s Open or Division I title games contested there last Saturday.

   But it’s doubtful that – with, of course, the exception of Open champion Sierra Canyon, which prevailed over Gary McKnight’s crew in the Feb. 8 playoff opener – it’s doubtful that anyone is any hotter right now in the State Southern Regional playoffs than are the Monarchs.

  That certainly appeared the case Wednesday night in the El Camino Community College gym, where the Monarchs got a collective five 3s from three players in the first quarter to spark a surprisingly one-sided victory over No.

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