Frank Burlison

LONG BEACH – Saturday’s opening day of the Pangos Best of SoCal Spring League at McBride High proved a nice showcase for many of the region’s better players for the 2023-24 season.

And, in the process, it also helped to confirm which of their high school teams are going to be among Southern California’s best next season, as well.

Some examples:

*Brayden Burries and Issac Williamson (pictured, left to right) – ineligible for all their sophomore seasons following their early winter transfer from Riverside Poly – helped show why their new high school program (Roosevelt in Eastvale) will be a Platinum Division participant in the Classic at Damien next December and a strong contender for a spot in the CIF Southern Section’s Open Division playoff field.

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BELLFLOWER – The Harvard-Westlake and St. John Bosco High squads came into their State Southern Open regional semifinal with enough high-quality underclassmen to already be considered the choices to be the Southland’s top two teams coming into the 2023-24 season.

But let’s don’t get ahead of ourselves, Frank.

The teams the Wolverines and host Braves put on the floor Saturday night were dang good, too.

But only one could be good enough to get out of the building with a win to earn a spot in Tuesday night’s regional final against a Corona Centennial program that’s been the state’s best for three seasons.

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RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA – After grinding out a 50-47 State Southern Regional Division II victory over visiting San Gabriel Academy Thursday night, the Tesoro High Titans will have just one Friday practice to prepare for its next opponent, also at home, on Saturday evening.

Not that Coach Steve Garrett’s team will need a whole lot of prep time for the Orange Lutheran Lancers in their 7 o’clock semifinal, though:

That’s the team that it knocked off in the CIF Southern Section 3AA championship game last Saturday night at Edison High in Huntington Beach – the same opponent the Titans spent the better part of week preparing for.

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The CIF Southern Section’s Division 1 champions from the past two seasons hook up in a State Southern Regional Division I second-round game Thursday night at St. Bernard High in Playa del Rey.

The host Vikings (22-8) knocked off JSerra in the 2022 CIF SS D-1 finale.

And the Mater Dei Monarchs (28-6) toppled Etiwanda in this season’s D-1 finale Saturday afternoon in the Honda Center.

The Monarchs had to recover from a nine-point, halftime deficit to visiting La Costa Tuesday night to prevail, 70-66, in overtime, in their regional opener.

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DOWNEY – Less than 24 hours after wrapping up their overpowering run to a CIF Southern Section 3AA championship Saturday afternoon, the Pius X-St. Matthias Academy boys’ basketball coaches and players learned that the CIF State office did them no favors relative to the Southern Regional playoffs.

The Warriors, after whacking La Serna, 79-48, at Colony High to complete a five-game, their beatdown of their playoff competition – by a margin of 29.8 ppg – were moved up into the 16-team Division II regional bracket.

But, after Coach Donte Archie’s club improved to 30-4 with its 22^nd consecutive win, 70-62 over perennial L.A.

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