Frank Burlison

LAGUNA NIGUEL – Eight o’clock games Friday and Saturday nights, at Cal Baptist University in Riverside and Toyota Arena in Ontario, respectively, highlight the weekend’s ten CIF Southern Section boys’ basketball championship games.

Defending State Open Division champion Harvard-Westlake (29-3) and Eastvale Roosevelt (30-2) are each in pursuit of their initial sectional title when they hook up Friday at Cal Baptist.

And Sherman Oaks Notre Dame (28-3) and Windward (28-3), which came into the playoffs as the No.’s 1 and 2 seeds, face off Saturday night in Ontario with the CIF SS D-1 title at stake.

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The Windward High boys’ basketball team extended its winning streak on the Damien High home floor to four Friday night.

More importantly, the 67-60 victory over the host Spartans earned Coach D.J. Gay’s team a slot in the CIF Southern Section’s Division 1 title championship game next Saturday evening in Ontario.

The 28-3, No. 2 seed Wildcats – who will face top-seed Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks at 8 o’clock in the Toyota Arena – extended their overall winning streak to 18.

Their last loss came on Dec.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL – Nineteen slots in 10 CIF Southern Section boys’ basketball playoff championship games are at stake Friday night in semifinal action across Southern California.

The only team that has secured a spot in a title game – regardless of the outcome of its Friday night game – is Eastvale Roosevelt.

Top-ranked in the BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal Top 30, Coach Steve Singleton’s 29-2 Mustangs, by way of Pool B victories over JSerra and St. Pius X/St. Matthias Academy, have one of the two reservations for the Open Division championship game set for Feb.

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EASTVALE – Tuesday night the Roosevelt High boys’ basketball team booked its Feb. 23 reservation for Cal Baptist University in Riverside and the CIF Southern Section Open Division championship business it will try to take care of that evening.

Coach Steve Singleton’s Mustangs, despite trailing by as many as eight points late in the third quarter and not taking their first lead until 4:39 remained, held off the visiting St. Pius X/St. Matthias Academy Warriors, 64-59, in an Open Pool B contest.

The victory improved their record to 29-2 and, coupled another JSerra pool-play victory at Mater Dei (67-59), punched their championship appearance tickets for the Feb.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL ­–  Tuesday night’s CIF Southern Section boys’ basketball playoff action will decide which teams advance to Friday’s semifinals:

It will also determine which programs will be bounced from the opportunity to play in the State Southern Regional playoffs in a couple of weeks.

In a pristine illustration of the quality of depth in Divisions 1 and 2AA – I’ll get to the Open Division in a bit – at least five and as many as six squads rated from No.’s 6 to 21 in the most recent BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal Top 30 will lose Tuesday night.

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