Frank Burlison

MESA, AZ — The West Coast Elite program’s 17s, 16s and 15s squad won a combined four of their five games during Friday’s first day of Session 1 of the Under Armour Next boys’ basketball grassroots circuit.

And, with Friday morning-to-Sunday afternoon making up the first of two “live spring recruiting weekends” for NCAA Division I-affiliated programs, there were plenty of college coaches on hand to watch the respective teams’ — and players’ — performances.

Action resumes Saturday morning at 8 o’clock in the spiffy — and, yeah, mammoth —  16-court Legacy Sports Center Fieldhouse in this sprawling Phoenix suburb.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL – The Harvard-Westlake High boys’ basketball program and its leader picked up the final BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal awards for the 2022-23 season.

The Wolverines’ 76-65, State Open Division victory over Santa Maria St. Joseph on March 11 in Sacramento’s Golden 1 Center wrapped up a 33-2 campaign that placed it among the top five or so “true high school” team performances in the country this past season.

Coach David Rebibo’s club won eight of its nine games against the other seven teams that made up the field for the CIF Southern Section’s Open Division playoff field.

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LONG BEACH – Three key elements to what should once again be one of the top high school teams in Southern California next season were on display Saturday at McBride High during the Pangos All-American Preview Camp.

Senior-to-be, 6-foot-7 Kendyl Sanders and the junior-to-be, backcourt duo of Caleb Versher and Joshua Palmer of Playa del Rey St. Bernard were among the elite performers during the one-day event that attracted 90 or so players – some of whom traveled from as far as Florida and Georgia to attend.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL – The most “under-appreciated” (at least by the generic high school hoops follower, whose opinions are largely shaped by social media hits-pursuers) member of the high school program that won 111 games over the past four seasons is about to be shown a whole lot of appreciation.

While winning those 111 games and bagging three CIF Southern Section Open Division crowns, the Corona Centennial High Huskies have had some high-profile performers.

Notably, those were guards Kylan Boswell (who played exceptionally well as a freshman for the University of Arizona this past season); Donovan Dent (another first-year standout, at the University of New Mexico, and California’s best player in the 2021-22 season); and Jared McCain (a McDonald’s All-American, bound for Duke this fall), as well as 6-foot-10 Devin Williams, who will be attending summer classes as a soon-to-be freshman at UCLA in a few months.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL – That Coach David Rebibo’s Harvard-Westlake basketball team was able to win Southern Regional and State Open Division championships speaks to the Wolverines playing their best during the most significant portion of the 2022-23 season.

And no one better illustrates that point than Trent Perry.

The 6-foot-4 playmaker averaged 16 points, seven rebounds and six assists per game during the HW program-best, 33-2 campaign.

But over the team’s final three games – regional games at St. John Bosco and Corona Centennial, in the state championship game  vs.

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