Frank Burlison

LA HABRA – A boys’ basketball game was sandwiched between two celebrations in the La Habra High gymnasium Tuesday night.

And it was the host Highlanders doing all the celebrating.

A pre-game video presentation showcased Coach Aaron Riekenberg’s program’s run to the Highlanders’ first-ever CIF Southern Section title last spring, capped by the unveiling of the championship banner on the gymnasium wall.

Less than an hour later the Highlanders were up 20 points on the visiting Crean Lutheran Saints and were cruising to a Crestview League victory.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL – The BurlisonOnBasketball Top 30 SoCal teams pecking order has been updated and was impacted by the results of this past week.

The most notable of those results came during the Hoop Hall West and Tournament of Champions competition in and around Mesa, AZ, from Thursday to Saturday.

Thirteen of the Top 30 clubs played in one of those events, and four of those – No.’s 3 Harvard-Westlake, 7 Redondo Union, 24 Rancho Cucamonga and (newcomer) 28 Oak Hills captured the championships of their respective eight-team brackets.

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MESA, AZ – The Studio City Harvard-Westlake High boys’ basketball team wrapped three superb days of focused and efficient play at both ends of the court Saturday night in the title game of the bracketed division of Hoop Hall West at Highland High.

The Wolverines jumped to an 18-point advantage at intermission en route to a 58-44 victory over previously unbeaten Concord De La Salle.

Six-foot-eight, Duke-bound senior Nikolas Khamenia (14 points, five rebounds and six assists in 32 minutes) was the obvious choice for the bracket’s Most Outstanding Player while helping his 16-1 team extend its win streak to nine.

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MESA, AZ – From my perspective, from six to eight boys’ basketball teams have the best opportunities to represent the North or South in the 2025 California State Open Division title game in Sacramento on March 15.

And two of those will be tipping off against one another at about 9 o’clock, MT, Saturday night in the final game of the bracketed division of the HoopHall West in the Highland High gymnasium.

Studio City Harvard-Westlake (17-1 and No. 4 in the BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal Top 30) and Concord De La Salle (14-0 and, IMO, the best team in NorCal as I write this Saturday morning) earned the spot in the finale after Friday night semifinal wins against Washington, DC, Gonzaga College Prep, and St.

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MESA, AZ – Two of the nation’s best boys high school basketball programs – and players –  hooked up Thursday night, capping nearly 13 hours of action in the Nike Tournament of Champions/HoopHall West event at Highland High.

And those in the gym who were able to power their way through the first eight games on the schedule were justly rewarded.

The Harvard-Westlake Wolverines  – winners of consecutive California State Open Division championships – relied on the playmaking and shot-making of senior Nikolas Khamenia to hold off the “host” Perry Pumas, 57-54, in the opening round of the eight-team bracketed tournament.

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