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LA VERNE – The dominating “post presence” that Nate Garcia provided Thursday night was the cornerstone of the Damien High Spartans’ 61-49 victory over visiting Etiwanda – and the outright Baseline League title championship that came with it.

Garcia (pictured), a 7-foot, 255-pound (give or take) junior, scored a layup before missing his second attempt early in the contest played in front of an approximate 2,000.

And then Garcia didn’t miss again unless he was fouled, hitting his final 12 field-goal attempts,  as well as two of three free throws in the fourth quarter, to score 28 points with 11 rebounds as the Spartans improved to 24-4, overall, and 9-1 in Baseline action to secure the program’s first outright title in nine years.

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SHERMAN OAKS – Despite having to cope with the skill of as good a scorer as there is anywhere on the high school scene, the Harvard-Westlake boys’ basketball team took care of its “road” Mission League business Wednesday night.

And, almost immediately after the conclusion of the Wolverines’ 60-56 victory over the host Notre Dame Knights, Coach David Rebibo’s players and coaching staff got a pleasant surprise, too:

Crespi’s 64-61, overtime stunner at Sierra Canyon – the tournament’s No. 1 seed – means that the Wolverines (25-3), which went into the Mission playoff as the No.

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SANTA ANA – Luke Barnett’s jump shooting was a big reason that the Mater Dei High basketball team built an 18-point advantage over the visiting St. John Bosco Braves Tuesday night late in the second quarter of  their Trinity League showdown.

And – lo and behold – it was also the key element in closing out the Monarchs’ 72-66 victory.

The victory gave the Monarchs (25-2 overall and 8-1 in league) no worse than a share of the league title. And it becomes “outright” with a Trinity- and regular season-closing win at Santa Margarita Thursday.

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  LAGUNA NIGUEL – It’s gut-cutting time, folks.

With the final week of the boys’ basketball “regular season” upon us, the stakes include a lot of league championships, the most high-profile of those coming in the Trinity, Mission and Big VIII ­– the latter two by way of “league tournament” title games set for Friday night.

*The outright Trinity champion could be all but decided Tuesday night, when St. John Bosco (No. 6 in the updated BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal Top 30) visits Mater Dei (No. 3) at 7 o’clock.

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SANTA ANA – Saturday’s nine-game, second day of the XXIX Nike Extravaganza, hosted by Mater Dei High and its basketball program, closed with five contests involving teams that could be in the CIF Southern Section’s Open Division playoff field a week from now.

And none of them was played with the competitiveness nor closed with the drama on showcase during Mater Dei’s clash with Los Alamitos – pulled out by the slimmest of margins and as late as possible, 66-65, via a buzzer-beating 3-point jumper by sophomore guard Luke Barnett.

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