Frank Burlison

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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LOS ANGELES – The more than year-long pandemic prevented the usual packed house for the latest renewal of one of California’s best high school rivalries Saturday afternoon.

But that didn’t lessen the stakes – nor the competitiveness – during the Westchester at Fairfax basketball game.

Senior guards T.J. Wainwright and Zion Sutton – starters on the Comets’ latest L.A. City Open title squad last spring – helped Coach Ed Azzam’s team improve to 7-0 with a 62-54 victory over the host Lions, who slipped to 6-1.

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NORTHRIDGE, Ca. – Coach Andre Chevalier’s Sierra Canyon High boys’ basketball team handled its final “pre-CIF Southern Open Division playoffs” challenge in admirable fashion Saturday afternoon in a non-league contest at Heritage Christian High.

The Trailblazers, behind by as many as seven points a couple of times in the second quarter and by four early in the final quarter, turned on the Amari Bailey-sparked afterburners to pull away from the host Warriors, 88-66.

Chevalier’s team will take a 12-0 record into the CIF Southern Section’s eight-team Open Division playoffs, scheduled to begin Friday evening.

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