Frank Burlison

EASTVALE –  For the third time in as many tries over the past 14 months Tuesday night, the Roosevelt High boys’ basketball team edged its St. John Bosco counterpart in a high-stakes matchup.

The first showdowns came in the Dec. 30 Platinum Division championship games of the Platinum Division of the past two Classic at Damien tournaments.

Tuesday night’s 58-51 win over the visiting Braves had something even more tangible for the Mustangs than championship, all-tournament and Most Outstanding Player plaques from California’s most prestigious tournament:

It punched their ticket into Saturday night’s CIF Southern Section Open Division championship game against Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks in Ontario’s Toyota Arena.

[Click to continue reading]

LONG BEACH – There is another batch of NBA “offspring” on their way to Southern California high schools  . . .

Two of those will be in high school in the fall as freshmen.

Another is currently in sixth grade, meaning – barring a “hold-back year” that so many male and female athletes and their families opt for – he won’ be a high school freshman until the 2027-28 school year.

Each of those impressed during the Saturday-Sunday Pangos Junior High All-American Camp that drew about 140 participants at McBride High.

[Click to continue reading]

NEWPORT BEACH – Sage Hill High’s boys basketball program earned its second CIF Southern Section championship appearance in three years Saturday night in the same grind-it-out fashion that carried the Lightning to its first three playoff wins this season.

Led by the dominance of six-foot-10 Jackson Cryst, Coach D’Cean Bryant’s team edged visiting San Gabriel Academy, 45-43, in a Division 3AA semifinal.

The Lightning – who lost to Long Beach Jordan (68-57) in the 4A title two years ago in Bryant’s first season as the program’s head coach – will face Palmdale Knight for the 3AA crown next Saturday at Toyota Arena in Ontario or Edison High in Huntington Beach.

[Click to continue reading]

LOS ALAMITOS – In 2007, Nate Berger was a sophomore forward in the Los Alamitos High boys’ basketball program when the Griffins beat Redondo Union in the CIF Southern Section 1-A title game.

It took 18 seasons, but the Griffins – after knocking off visiting Crean Lutheran, 82-57, Friday night – are finally returning to a Southern Section championship game.

They’ll play the winner of Saturday’s Santa Barbara at Mira Costa clash next Saturday – March 1 – in the Toyota Arena in Ontario.

And Berger – who mostly played junior varsity during the 2006-7 season – has had considerably more impact on the Griffins return to a title game than he did 18 years ago:

He’s his alma mater’s head coach.

[Click to continue reading]

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA – The Notre Dame High basketball team gets its third pop in less than a month at Mission League foe Harvard-Westlake Friday night.

And Knights’ Coach Matt Sargeant would have it no other way.

“The road to the (CIF Southern Section) Open championships go through Harvard-Westlake,” he said Tuesday night, moments after his team had held off the host Santa Margarita Eagles, 67-59, in an Open Division Pool A playoff game.

With the pool play structure, the Knights-Wolverines’ clash in Studio City has been set since the CIF SS office unveiled the playoff pools and brackets on Feb.

[Click to continue reading]