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LAGUNA NIGUEL – The ultimate choice for the BurlisonOnBasketball Southern California Player of the Year got easier to make with each week in the final month or so of the 2017-18 season.

In its 10-game run to CIF Southern Section Division 1 and State Division I championships, Chino Hills High got strong performances from two of the state’s most underrated (well, not any more, or course) seniors in 6-foot-2 Ofure Ujadughele and 6-6 Andre Ball.

But the lynchpin for Coach Dennis Latimore’s team’s success, during the 16-11 regular season and the playoffs, was 6-9 junior Onyeka Okongwu.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – So, what does Andre Chevalier do for an encore?

Chevalier capped a remarkable first season as the head coach of the Sierra Canyon High basketball program Sunday night, guiding the Trailblazers to a State CIF Open Division championship victory over Sacramento Sheldon in the Sacramento Kings’ in Golden 1 Center.

Sierra Canyon not only navigated its way through the post-season landscapes that are the CIF Southern Section’s and Regional Open Division playoff fields but did so with a completely revamped roster from the 2016-17 season.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – Some randomness, re: Thursday night’s NCAA Tournament semifinals in Atlanta and Los Angeles:

*Twelve programs remain in the NCAA Tournament and none of them are even remotely considered to be based in the “West”.

With Nevada getting bounced by Loyola of Chicago in Atlanta and Gonzaga toppled by Florida State in Los Angeles Thursday, the best from the Mountain West (the Wolf Pack won the regular season) and West Coast Conference have now taken their last NCAA-funded charter flights for the season.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – I’ve followed NCAA tournaments very closely since, say, 1971 or so – yes, I’m old as, well . . . I’m old.

But without doing a whole lot of time-consuming season-by-season research, I can’t recall a first week to an NCAA Basketball Tournament that was as mind-whopping as this one was.

Let me count the ways, in reasonably pecking order:

1. The first No. 1 seed – regionally, much less nationally – fell to a No. 16 as the Virginia Cavaliers were blitzed by Maryland-Baltimore County.

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LONG BEACH – The Sierra Canyon High basketball team held its collective breath as a potential score-tying jumper by Etiwanda’s Krystian Wilson was just off the front of the rim as the buzzer sounded in Long Beach State’s Pyramid.

With the miss came a 58-55 victory for the Trailblazers over the Eagles in the Southern Regional Open Division final and earned them a spot in the state championship game next Saturday night in Sacramento.

Sierra Canyon’s “NBA bloodlines” came through at critical moments for Coach Andre Chevalier’s team as Kenyon Martin Jr.,

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