Frank Burlison

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Ca. – On a Friday night when the Trinity Leagues’ 1-2 teams – Mater Dei and St. John Bosco – lost in their CIF Southern Section Open Division pool-play openers, the rest of the league fared quite well in other divisions.

JSerra (65-56 over Santa Clarita Christian), Div. 1; Santa Margarita (82-63 over Palos Verdes) and Orange Lutheran (48-43, vs. Westlake), Div. 2AA; and Servite (71-69, in overtime, vs. Aliso Niguel), Div. 2A, each knocked off visiting opponents in Round of 16 playoff action.

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RIVERSIDE, Ca. – Doug Mitchell’s teams have won six CIF Southern Section and four state title, as well as 20 league championships during his 32 seasons as the boys’ basketball coach at Torrance’s Bishop Montgomery High.

The proof is in the on-court results – he, his staff and players crank out quality teams, year after year.

Oh, yeah – those teams improve over the course of a season.

What you see in late November or December isn’t likely what you’re going to see of the Knights in February and March.

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LA HABRA, Ca. – Junior guard Jeremy Dent-Smith scored 23 of his game-high 25 points after intermission Tuesday night to help his Gardena Serra High team overpower the host La Habra Highlanders, 74-60, in a CIF Southern Section Division 2AA opening-round playoff contest.

Coach Bernard McCrumby’s team, which improved to 9-8, made a 27-mile drive on its chartered bus to La Habra High for the contest.

The drive will twice as long Friday — 54 miles, east-bound, to Ontario – and the competition, in theory, considerably tougher by way of the Cavaliers’ second-round opponent.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – The eight teams selected to the CIF Southern Section’s Open Division playoff field, along with the three squads closest to being a part of that group, take up the first 11 spots on the final regular-season BurlisonOnBasketball “21 for 2021” ratings.

Sierra Canyon secured the top spot with its 86-74 win over host and now-No. 9 Heritage Christian on Saturday – an opponent that could prove to be as tough a foe for them as any the Trailblazers could face in the Open playoffs.

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The 2021 CIF Southern Section Boys’ Basketball Open Division playoff field looks a whole lot like its 2019-20 counterpart.

And that starts at the top, where two-time defending champion Sierra Canyon (12-0) and Corona Centennial (18-1) are again the respective 1 and 2 seeds, with the Trailblazers atop Pool “A” and the Huskies topping Pool “B”.

Also returning to the Open Division Playoffs are No. 3 seed Mater Dei (26-1), 4 Etiwanda (9-1), 7 Harvard-Westlake (15-3) and 8 St. John Bosco (19-2).

Joining Open action for the first time are No.

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