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LONG BEACH – There is another batch of NBA “offspring” on their way to Southern California high schools  . . .

Two of those will be in high school in the fall as freshmen.

Another is currently in sixth grade, meaning – barring a “hold-back year” that so many male and female athletes and their families opt for – he won’ be a high school freshman until the 2027-28 school year.

Each of those impressed during the Saturday-Sunday Pangos Junior High All-American Camp that drew about 140 participants at McBride High.

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NEWPORT BEACH – Sage Hill High’s boys basketball program earned its second CIF Southern Section championship appearance in three years Saturday night in the same grind-it-out fashion that carried the Lightning to its first three playoff wins this season.

Led by the dominance of six-foot-10 Jackson Cryst, Coach D’Cean Bryant’s team edged visiting San Gabriel Academy, 45-43, in a Division 3AA semifinal.

The Lightning – who lost to Long Beach Jordan (68-57) in the 4A title two years ago in Bryant’s first season as the program’s head coach – will face Palmdale Knight for the 3AA crown next Saturday at Toyota Arena in Ontario or Edison High in Huntington Beach.

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LOS ALAMITOS – In 2007, Nate Berger was a sophomore forward in the Los Alamitos High boys’ basketball program when the Griffins beat Redondo Union in the CIF Southern Section 1-A title game.

It took 18 seasons, but the Griffins – after knocking off visiting Crean Lutheran, 82-57, Friday night – are finally returning to a Southern Section championship game.

They’ll play the winner of Saturday’s Santa Barbara at Mira Costa clash next Saturday – March 1 – in the Toyota Arena in Ontario.

And Berger – who mostly played junior varsity during the 2006-7 season – has had considerably more impact on the Griffins return to a title game than he did 18 years ago:

He’s his alma mater’s head coach.

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RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA – The Notre Dame High basketball team gets its third pop in less than a month at Mission League foe Harvard-Westlake Friday night.

And Knights’ Coach Matt Sargeant would have it no other way.

“The road to the (CIF Southern Section) Open championships go through Harvard-Westlake,” he said Tuesday night, moments after his team had held off the host Santa Margarita Eagles, 67-59, in an Open Division Pool A playoff game.

With the pool play structure, the Knights-Wolverines’ clash in Studio City has been set since the CIF SS office unveiled the playoff pools and brackets on Feb.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL – The Open Division has been the flag pole of the CIF Southern Section boys basketball playoffs since its debut 11 years ago.

And, naturally, with two-time defending state Open champion Harvard-Westlake and 2024 Southern Section and Southern Regional runner-up Roosevelt leading the way, that was the case during the first week of the playoffs.

But even if a computer program dictates that the “10 best” teams in the Section are in the Open Division, there are a lot of quality teams busting it trying to win titles on Feb.

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