Frank Burlison

LAGUNA NIGUEL – Ten of the teams in the newest version of the BurlisonOnBasketball Southern California Top 25 are set to participate in Friday-Saturday, 28^th version of the Nike Extravaganza at Mater Dei High in Santa Ana.

Noteworthy among those are No.’s 1 Centennial, 2 Harvard-Westlake and 4 West Ranch.

Those teams are a combined 66-5 and already locked into the CIF Southern Section’s Open Division playoff field of eight, competition for which is set to begin on Feb. 10.

The first of the 16 Extravaganza games, St.

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ONTARIO, CA – If the atmosphere at, and anticipation for, the Harvard-Westlake High boys’ Mission League games with Notre Dame and Sierra Canyon last week were “10s” on a “1 to 10” scale, how did the Wolverines’ State Preview Classic game with Rancho Verde at Colony High Saturday night stack up?

Uh . . . somewhere well short of 10.

“Those games, the energy was turned so up,” senior forward Brady Dunlap said of his team’s high-profile victories against teams rated No.’s 11 and 6 in Southern California, after the Wolverines’ 78-59 decision against a team playing without Jacob McFarland (left foot in a walking boot), a 6-foot-10, University of Houston-bound senior.

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LA VERNE, CA – The Damien High defense held the visiting Etiwanda Eagles to 30 points through, basically, three quarters of the Baseline League showdown Friday night.

But a Spartans’ turnover set the table for a layup by Alton Hamilton just a tic before the buzzer ending the quarter and cutting the hosts’ lead to seven points in front of a near-SRO crowd.

And it proved the path the Eagles (No. 10 in the BurlisonOnBasketball Top 25) needed to jump-start their offense, as six turnovers by the Spartans propelled the visitors to a 25-point fourth quarter and 57-53 victory.

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ONTARIO, CA – The annual State Preview Classic, presented by SBLive, and held at Colony High, is set for Saturday with a nine-game schedule, featuring some of the region’s top boys’ basketball teams.

Three teams from among the first 12 in the BurlisonOnBasketball Top 25 – and three more in that group – are among those in the field.

Games are set to get underway at 9 o’clock in the morning, when No. 24 San Pedro Rolling Hills (the event is the brainchild of RHP Coach Harvey Kitani) faces Hacienda Heights Los Altos.

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BELLFLOWER, CA – There are three CIF Southern Section leagues in which boys’ basketball games, at this point of the season, impact not only league championships but the makeup of the Open Division playoffs, too.

One of those was played at St. John Bosco High Wednesday night.

And the 55-30 victory over the Santa Margarita Eagles moved the host Braves a notch closer to a Trinity League title and a spot in the eight-team Open Division playoffs next month.

Depending on your perspective, a team can’t play much better defensively than did Coach Matt Dunn’s team did in improving to 20-3 overall and 5-0 in league – or much more less productively than did Justin Bell’s now 20-4 and 4-1 squad.

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