Frank Burlison

SANTA ANA – The Friday-Saturday XXIX Nike Extravaganza provides a handy primer for the CIF Southern Section boys’ playoffs set to get underway with wild-card games on Feb. 6 and first-round action the next day.

The eight-team Open Division – which has evolved into the most competitive playoff bracket in the sport in the west – tips on Feb. 9 with four pool-play contests.

Saturday the Nike Extravaganza plays host to five of the 11 squads still in legitimate contention for one of those Open spots:

*Mater Dei (No.

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SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – There are near-countless examples of the outcome of a high school basketball game being more seismic than “just a win” or “just a loss”.

The Trinity League contest at JSerra was one of those games.

The host Lions, only within 10 points at intermission because senior guard Aidan Fowler scored a layup a second before the buzzer, turned in an electric second half and knocked off Mater Dei, 68-62.

The Monarchs came into South Orange County gymnasium as the top-ranked team in the BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal Top 30 and with overall and Trinity records of 21-1 and 6-0.

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NEWPORT BEACH – Watch enough basketball games over six decades and you may not see everything.

  But you’re going to come close . . .

That was the case at Pacifica Christian High, where the host Tritons took on – and knocked off, San Gabriel Academy, 64-57 – in a San Joaquin League clash.

The Tritons (5-1 in league and 16-10 overall) used the scoring and rebounding of the Stewart Brothers (senior Alex and junior Logan, who combined for 21 first-half points) to go up midway through the second quarter, 29-13.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL ­– And then there were two . . .

Pardon the trite Agatha Christie reference cliché in reminding you that there are just two weeks remaining in Southern California’s high school hoops regular season.

And a significant two days in that stretch take place Friday and Saturday in Santa Ana, where the Mater Dei High program will play host to the 29^th Nike Extravaganza.

Fifteen games will be played – six of those, including a Mater Dei-Esperanza girls’ clash, on Friday.

Ten of the boys’ teams scheduled to play in the event reside in the updated BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal Top 30 ­– five of those among the top 10.

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ONTARIO, Ca. – The annual State Preview Classic, presented by SBLive, has another outstanding boys’ basketball, nine-game field set for Saturday and scheduled to tip at 9 a.m.

Included among those contests are three in which both teams are rated in the BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal Top 30, with five others having one Top 30 squad.

The most significant of the games – relative to its potential impact upon the makeup and seeding for the CIF Southern Section’s eight-team Open Division playoff field – is set for 4:30, when No.

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