Frank Burlison

  LAGUNA NIGUEL – Friday’s opening of the 2019 CIF Southern Section Open Division boys’ basketball playoffs will mirror the conclusion of the 2018 SS Open playoffs – with Mater Dei taking on Sierra Canyon.

   No. 2 seed Sierra Canyon will play host to No. 7 Mater Dei Friday at a site to be determined (possibly Simi Valley High).

  Top seed (based upon its win against Sierra Canyon Saturday night at Pasadena City College) Rancho Christian will open against No. 8 Bishop Montgomery – a program that won two of the first five Open championships – at a site to be determined in the Temecula.

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  PASADENA – Some – or, more accurately, many – may have looked at Saturday night’s Rancho Christian-Sierra Canyon boys’ basketball game at Pasadena City College as a “sneak preview” of the Feb. 23 CIF Southern Section Open Division champion game.

   Well, if that does prove to be the case, that’s going to prove to be a heck of a showdown at Cal Baptist University in Riverside.

   That was certainly the case at PCC Saturday night.

   Rancho Christian, trailing by nine points after Scotty Pippen Jr.’s

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  SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Ca. – The eighth-grade brother of a 2019 McDonald’s All-American was among the many standouts during the Jan. 26&27 West Coast Elite Junior All-American Camp at JSerra High.

  The camp featured 200-plus athletes from the fifth thru the eighth grades.

   Six-foot-four Ky Green (Parkridge Middle School in Peoria, AZ), whose brother, University of Arizona-bound Josh Green was a recent McD’s AA selection as a senior at IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL, dominated much of the camp via high spectacular jumping as well as his jump shooting and driving.

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  PASADENA – Southern California’s two-best boys’ basket teams hook up Saturday night at Pasadena City College for the first of what could eventually be three meetings this season.

   Chatsworth Sierra Canyon (24-2) and Temecula Rancho Christian (22-4), No.’s 1 and 2 in the CIF Southern Section Division I ratings, hook up at 7:30 in the last contest of a triple-header.

    The winner of the clash will be the No. 1 seed and the loser No. 2 when the Southern Section unveils its eight-team Open Division playoff field Sunday at noon (PT).

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  MISSION HILLS – The Loyola and Harvard-Westlake squads pushed through to semifinal wins Thursday night to advance to Friday night’s first-ever Mission League boys’ basketball tournament championship game at Alemany High.

  The Loyola Cubs advanced to 21-5 with their 61-60 win over Chaminade in the first of the Thursday night, with the Harvard-Westlake Wolverines (18-7) using a strong collective rebounding and defensive performance to pull away down the stretch against Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks, 59-49.

  The championship game (scheduled to tip at 8 o’clock) is also set to be televised by KDOC (Channel 56 on DirecTV).

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