Frank Burlison

SANTA ANA – What is a perfect one-word description for the opening night of the State Regional Boys’ Open Division play?

“Upsetting” will do just fine, thank you very much.

The No. 1 seeds in both the North (30-1 Richmond Salesian, toppled by Folsom, 75-70) and the South (23-6 Mater Dei, edged by L.A. Fairfax, 50-47) were stunned on their home courts Friday night, shaking up the respective brackets going into Tuesday night semifinals.

Coach Gary McKnight’s Mater Dei team, which had knocked off Crespi, Etiwanda and Sierra Canyon to capture the CIF Southern Section’s Open Division crown, was down by 10 points –14-4 – six minutes into the game Friday night.

[Click to continue reading]

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – Jaxen Turner of Moreno Valley’s Rancho Verde High is rated among the very best defensive backs in the national Class of 2019.

And, as he put on display so precisely Thursday night at JSerra High during his team’s State Southern Regional Division I playoff game with Santa Margarita, he’s among the upper-tier among basketball prospects in the class, as well.

The 6-foot-1 Turner scored 30 points – three of them via a 41-foot, buzzer-beating, game-winner – in the Mustangs’ gut-twisting 57-54 victory over the Eagles.

[Click to continue reading]

AZUSA –  Two years ago he was one of the members of the supporting cast – albeit a very high-powered one – to National Player of the Year Lonzo Ball on the road to Chino Hills High’s first-ever CIF Southern Section basketball championship.

Saturday night, though, now-junior Onyeka Okongwu showed why he was The Man on the Huskies’ successful run to a second Southern Section title.

The 6-foot-9 Okongwu continued his unadulterated dominance while leading his team to a 72-56 win over Pasadena in front of a packed Felix Event center on the campus of Azusa Pacific University in the CIF SS Division I championship game.

[Click to continue reading]

LONG BEACH – The Sierra Canyon High Trailblazers had three tantalizing, point-blank attempts at the bucket in the closing seconds of their CIF Southern Section Open Division championship game with Mater Dei Friday night at Long Beach State.

But, ever-so-abruptly, instead of preparing for overtime Coach Gary McKnight and his Monarchs were celebrating a 55-53 victory and the program’s 23rd section championship.

With his trailing by two points with 8.7 seconds remaining, Ohio State-bound Duane Washington got a clean drive from the left land but couldn’t convert the runner, high-jumping Kenyon Martin missed a tap and then, finally, Terren Frank had the tightest miss of all – a controlled, one-hand follow from eight feet in which the ball dipped in before popping out of the iron as the buzzer sound.

[Click to continue reading]

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA – The CIF Southern Section’s top four seeds into the State Southern Regional Division I playoffs that get underway on March 7 were set Tuesday night.

Host Bellflower St. John Bosco’s 72-60 decision Encino Crespi in the SS’s Open Division “fifth-place” game means the victorious Braces will be the SS’s top seed to the regional D-I bracket that is unveiled on Sunday (March 4).

And visiting Temecula Rancho Christian’s 61-56 decision at Santa Margarita makes Coach Ray Barefield’s club the No. 3 SS seed into the D-I field with Santa Margarita taking the No.

[Click to continue reading]