Frank Burlison

   LAGUNA NIGUEL – Several of the CIF Southern Section’s top teams will venture into San Diego County this week for match-ups with some of that section’s top programs.

   *Rancho Christian,which remained No. 3 in this week’s BurlisonOnBasketball Top 25, is in San Diego Friday night to face No. 24 and host Mission Bay, the 2018 San Diego Section Open Division champion. In the first game of that “Mission Bay Beach Bash” double-header, No. 19 Orange Lutheran takes on La Jolla Country Day and its Princeton-bound guard, Ryan Langborg.

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SCOTTSDALE, Az. – Sixteen games – featuring involving 24 teams – spread over three days at Chaparral High made for what will prove, no doubt, to be one of the most entertaining and talent-laden high school hoops events of the 2018-19.

   None of those 24 teams (eight of which played twice) fit the “most entertaining” and “talent-laden” description more so than did the Rancho Christian Eagles from Temecula from some of the most southeastern reaches of “Southern California”.

   Saturday night, in the most noteworthy “showdown” of the eight games played on the event’s final day, Coach Ray Barefield’s, Mobley Brothers-led crew rallied from 11 points down in the second quarter before topping Nico Mannion and his Pinnacle High teammates, 89-79.

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  SCOTTSDALE, Az. –During his freshman and sophomore seasons at Chino Hills High in Southern California,Melo Ball was accustomed to playing in front of crowds so large that, figuratively, they had to be shoe-horned into the gymnasiums and arenas.

   After spending what would have been his junior year in high school playing professionally in Europe, Ball has returned to “high school” – albeit a “prep school”, Spire Institute in Ohio – and the packed gyms have joined him.

    Friday night, infront of an estimated 3,000 in Chaparral High’s gym (which, according to theschool’s head coach, was built to seat 2,800), Ball and his gifted teammatestoppled another prep school team, Bella Vista of Phoenix, 85-69, during thefeatured game of the second day of the HoopHall West.

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  SCOTTSDALE, Az. – The “showcase” game of Thursday’s first day of the three-day HoopHall West at Chaparral High was undoubtedly the nationally televised clash between Phoenix Pinnacle and Fresno San Joaquin Memorial.

   And the two standouts for each team – yeah, the only reasons, in reality, the game was getting the ESPN treatment – delivered the goods, with Pinnacle’s Nico Mannion and SJM’s Jalen Green scoring 33 often-spectacular points apiece.

   But it was Mannion (PICTURED) – the University of Arizona-bound, best point guard in the Class of 2019 – and the rest of the Pioneers who cruised to an eased-up, 90-69, victory over the squad from the central portion of California.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL – The three top teams in the updated BurlisonOnBasketball Top 25 all face hefty schedules this week.

*No. 1 Sierra Canyon is at home to No. 10 Camarillo (led by UCLA-bound Jaime Jaquez/PICTURED) Monday; No. 2 6 Corona Centennial Tuesday; No.  15 Riverside Notre Dame Thursday and defending State Division IV champion Santa Clarita Christian Saturday.

*No. 2 St. John Bosco travels to Carmichael (suburb of Sacramento) for a tournament that includes No. 14 Sherman Oaks Notre Dame and host Jesuit.

*No. 3 Rancho Christian, fresh off an a come-from-behind (15 points) victory over host Centennial in the BattleZone final Saturday night, is in Scottsdale, AZ this week for the HoopHall West, where the Eagles will take on Chicago powerhouse Simeon Friday night and Nico Mannion-led Phoenix Pinnacle Saturday.

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