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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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CHATSWORTH – A stunning final six minutes-plus resulted in a mind-boggling 23-point turnaround Friday night, propelling  the host Sierra Canyon High Trailblazers to an 81-75, Mission League victory over the previously-unbeaten Notre Dame Knights.

As the JSerra’s Trinity League win against visiting Mater Dei Wednesday night, the Sierra Canyon victory has significant from both a league and CIF Southern Section Open Division perspective.

It means that the Trailblazers (24-1 and 7-0 in league) are the top seed in the Mission tournament held next week.

Sierra Canyon and Notre Dame (24-1 and 6-1) earned byes into Wednesday night’s semifinals.

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SANTA ANA – The Friday-Saturday XXIX Nike Extravaganza provides a handy primer for the CIF Southern Section boys’ playoffs set to get underway with wild-card games on Feb. 6 and first-round action the next day.

The eight-team Open Division – which has evolved into the most competitive playoff bracket in the sport in the west – tips on Feb. 9 with four pool-play contests.

Saturday the Nike Extravaganza plays host to five of the 11 squads still in legitimate contention for one of those Open spots:

*Mater Dei (No.

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