Frank Burlison

LONG BEACH – The Sierra Canyon High boys’ basketball program 16^th consecutive playoff victory, divided by three seasons, equaled the Trailblazers’ second CIF Southern Section Open Division championship.

Two weeks from now the equation could extended with a third State Open title as the result.

Six-foot-eight McDonald’s All-American Ziaire Williams – whose junior season at Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks ended with a first-round, 2AA loss to Temecula Valley – was easily the most influential player on the floor Friday night in front of the SRO gathering in Long Beach State’s Walter Pyramid while leading No.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL – Twenty boys’ teams will compete in 10 CIF Southern Section Playoff basketball this weekend.

Ten of those teams – across seven divisions – participated in the fourth Classic at Damien last December:

*Sierra Canyon (27-4), the top seed and defending champion, which takes on Mater Dei (25-6) in the Open Division championship game at 8:30 Friday night.

The Monarchs, who came into the playoffs as the No. 7 seed, are the last program to knock off Coach Andre Chevalier’s Trailblazers in a post-season game (during the 2018 Southern Section Open finale);

*Windward (23-6) is the top seed in Division 1 and takes on No.

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SAN DIEGO – A freshman was the dominant player on the floor most of the way as the San Ysidro High boys’ basketball team won the program’s first-ever San Diego Section championship Thursday night while toppling Coronado, 71-59, in the Division III title game at Montgomery High.

By the way, the aforementioned freshman wasn’t Mikey Williams, maybe the both hyped first-year player in high school hoops (if it isn’t Bronny James of Sierra Canyon).

The standout player on the floor in front of a SRO-gathering of 1,700-plus was 6-foot-4 Jurian Dixon (pictured) scored 13 of his game-high 32 points in the fourth quarter as the Cougars (24-8) had too much firepower for the Islanders (21-10) to cope with.

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GARDENA – The host Gardena High Panthers trailed just once Wednesday night while en route to a 76-67 victory against Taft in an L.A. City boys’ basketball playoff game for fifth place in the Open Division.

Both teams will be part of the State Southern Regional playoff brackets – likely in Division I or II – that will be unveiled Sunday afternoon.

State regional action begins on Tuesday night for Divisions I thru V, with a likely eight-team Open getting underway the next night.

The Panthers (27-4) took a 12-point advantage after the first period with each starter scoring.

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CARLSBAD – The host Carlsbad High Lancers were minus the two players that would have given them a consider size advantage in their CIF San Diego Section Division I semifinal with Oceanside El Camino Tuesday night.

“No worries”, Lancers’ 5-foot-11 senior guard Jailen Nelson said, though, by way of a stunning performance that propelled his team to an 72-44 victory and spot in the Saturday championship game with Santa Fe Christian at UC San Diego.

Nelson (pictured), who committed to Cal State Monterey Bay last week, turned in a tidy 42-point, no fuss or muss, performance and forcing – to no avail – the Wildcats to throw multiple defenders and schemes in an attempt to slow him down.

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