Frank Burlison

  DOWNEY – Some of the better players from the Class of 2019 that are still in search of a college destination were on display Saturday at St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy during the Beach City Hoops (in conjunction with Gamepoint-OC) Unsigned Senior Showcase.

    There was a plethora of superb jump shooters in attendance, notably Mission League products Vince Fier (Mission Hills Alemany) and Alex Blanco (Notre Dame-Sherman Oaks) along with Quincy Adams (Hollywood).

  A cluster of extremely quick point guards were in the building, too, led by the dynamic John Clausell (Leuzinger/PICTURED) who put on his usual display of end-to-end acceleration and putting-right-in-shooters’-hands playmaking.

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  ETIWANDA – “Big O” has been locked in as Chino Hills senior Onyeka Okongwu’s moniker for about as long as he’s been a dominant force on the high school hoops scene – basically, since November of his freshman year.

   But, after leading his team to a stunning, come-from-behind, 49-47 victory over host and top seed Etiwanda Tuesday night in the State Southern Regional DI final, it’s apparent that at least one other tag would be appropriate for the 6-foot-9, USC-bound Okongwu:

  Mr. March.

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  NORWALK, Ca. – National ratings for middle-school players are always more than a bit nebulous, at best.

   That being established, it’s difficult imagining there being a more dominant eighth-grader anywhere than was Baye Fall during the seventh Pangos Junior All-American Camp that wrapped up Sunday afternoon at Cerritos Community College.

   The 6-foot-9 Fall, who attends Lincoln Charter School in Denver and came to the U.S. from Senegal about a year or so ago, crushed the competition and capped his two-day performance with 13 points, 14 rebounds and six blocked shots (stats courtesy @devin_ugland) in the “Best of the Best” all-star game.

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  RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA – They’re future college basketball programs may have been battling one another some 68 or so miles away in Westwood.

   But, while UCLA eventually knocked off its USC counterpart in overtime Thursday night, a future Bruin and soon-to-be Trojan teammate to give their Santa Margarita High team to another playoff victory.

   USC-bound Max Agbonkpolo (28) and Jake Kyman (22) – who signed with UCLA in November – combined for 50 points as the Eagles toppled El Cajon Foothills Christian, 76-66, in the second round of the State Southern Regional Division I playoffs.

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Two months after its conclusion, the 2018 Classic at Damien continues to demonstrate – by many of its entrants – why it was easily the best post-Christmas basketball tournament in the west.

  Fourteen of its participants are in Thursday night’s second round of the State Southern Regional playoffs, with 13 of among the 16 teams still in action in Divisions I&II.

   Three of the Division I quarterfinals feature “all-Classic matchups”:

   No. 8 seed Birmingham (which was winless in four CAD Platinum games but advanced to the semifinals of the L.A.

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