Frank Burlison

LOS ALAMITOS – In 2007, Nate Berger was a sophomore forward in the Los Alamitos High boys’ basketball program when the Griffins beat Redondo Union in the CIF Southern Section 1-A title game.

It took 18 seasons, but the Griffins – after knocking off visiting Crean Lutheran, 82-57, Friday night – are finally returning to a Southern Section championship game.

They’ll play the winner of Saturday’s Santa Barbara at Mira Costa clash next Saturday – March 1 – in the Toyota Arena in Ontario.

And Berger – who mostly played junior varsity during the 2006-7 season – has had considerably more impact on the Griffins return to a title game than he did 18 years ago:

He’s his alma mater’s head coach.

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RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA – The Notre Dame High basketball team gets its third pop in less than a month at Mission League foe Harvard-Westlake Friday night.

And Knights’ Coach Matt Sargeant would have it no other way.

“The road to the (CIF Southern Section) Open championships go through Harvard-Westlake,” he said Tuesday night, moments after his team had held off the host Santa Margarita Eagles, 67-59, in an Open Division Pool A playoff game.

With the pool play structure, the Knights-Wolverines’ clash in Studio City has been set since the CIF SS office unveiled the playoff pools and brackets on Feb.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL – The Open Division has been the flag pole of the CIF Southern Section boys basketball playoffs since its debut 11 years ago.

And, naturally, with two-time defending state Open champion Harvard-Westlake and 2024 Southern Section and Southern Regional runner-up Roosevelt leading the way, that was the case during the first week of the playoffs.

But even if a computer program dictates that the “10 best” teams in the Section are in the Open Division, there are a lot of quality teams busting it trying to win titles on Feb.

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BELLFLOWER – Bye the way, having Wednesday’s opening night of the CIF Southern Section playoffs may not have been advantageous to the Trinity League co-champion’s Open Division aspirations.

The St. John Bosco Braves and Santa Margarita, the aforementioned  teams who held No.’s 3 and 4 seeds in the 10-team division who had byes in the first round Wednesday, made their playoff debuts Friday night at home.

It didn’t go well for either.

No. 7 seed Redondo Union (24-4), which had dropped its past two games by a collective margin of five points, hit 14 3-pointers, six of those by senior guard Brayden Miner – including the go-ahead bucket with 57 seconds to go – to stun the Braves, 77-75.

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ANAHEIM HILLS – Brandon Benjamin capped his birthday Wednesday night not by blowing out 18 candles on a frosting-smothered cake but by doing what he has always does when he has stepped on a basketball court over the past four seasons:

He showcased his multitude of skills, with or without the ball in his hands.

The 6-foot-5 senior went for game highs of 23 points, 11 rebounds and six assists to help the host Canyon Comanches hold off Damien, 60-55, in a first-round game of the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs.

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