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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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BELLFLOWER – Bye the way, having Wednesday’s opening night of the CIF Southern Section playoffs may not have been advantageous to the Trinity League co-champion’s Open Division aspirations.

The St. John Bosco Braves and Santa Margarita, the aforementioned  teams who held No.’s 3 and 4 seeds in the 10-team division who had byes in the first round Wednesday, made their playoff debuts Friday night at home.

It didn’t go well for either.

No. 7 seed Redondo Union (24-4), which had dropped its past two games by a collective margin of five points, hit 14 3-pointers, six of those by senior guard Brayden Miner – including the go-ahead bucket with 57 seconds to go – to stun the Braves, 77-75.

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ANAHEIM HILLS – Brandon Benjamin capped his birthday Wednesday night not by blowing out 18 candles on a frosting-smothered cake but by doing what he has always does when he has stepped on a basketball court over the past four seasons:

He showcased his multitude of skills, with or without the ball in his hands.

The 6-foot-5 senior went for game highs of 23 points, 11 rebounds and six assists to help the host Canyon Comanches hold off Damien, 60-55, in a first-round game of the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL – The CIF Southern Section’s boys’ basketball playoffs tip on Wednesday night, with – obviously – no shortage of terrific viewing options on Night 1.

For the first time, the section used a computer program to rank and seed the teams in each playoff division.

And, also for the first time, the Open Division has expanded from eight to 10 teams.

In this format, the division continues with pool (instead of bracket, as in the other divisions) play with each team playing four times and the pool winners getting a fifth game via the March 1 championship game in Ontario.

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SAN DIEGO – The programs expected to play in the CIF San Diego Section’s Open championship game were among the 14 teams that took part in Saturday’s Battle at the Bay at Mission Bay High.

Top-ranked and 24-2 Montgomery – which lost to Carlsbad in the 2024 title game – overcame a five-point deficit early in the second quarter and pulled away from San Diego, 65-49.

And Carlsbad – which knocked off the Aztecs in the Open finale a year ago and took Harvard-Westlake to the wire in a State Southern Regional semifinal – toppled Chula Vista Olympian, 65-58, in the final game of the evening.

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