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SACRAMENTO – Each of the three California Interscholastic Federation boys’ championship games played Thursday in the Sleep Train Arena featured multiple standout performers.

Examples:

*The impressive efforts by freshmen Adam Campos (12 points and eight rebounds) and Kobe Keiner (a critical pair of free throws down the stretch) in Alameda St. Joseph Notre Dame’s 55-50 victory over Playa del Rey St. Bernard in the Division V finale;

*Senior guard Robert Fuller’s 15-point, four-assist and two-steal effort that helped St. Bernard stay close throughout;

*Left-handed junior forward Tydus Verhoeven showed off his variety of skills while scoring 11 points with 12 rebounds and four assists as Manteca knocked off Chino Hills Ayala, 60-51, for the Division III championship;

*Ayala (which finished 33-4 and, like 29-6 Manteca, was playing in its first state title game) rallied from an early 17-point deficit to get to within three points early in the fourth quarter, got a strong effort by one of California’s best unsigned seniors, 6-5 John Edgar, who scored 21 points – with four 3s – to go with six rebounds and four steals;

*And 6-6 senior Mitchell Mykhaylov picked a perfect moment to turn in one of his best efforts for Encino Crespi, scoring 19 points with 13 rebounds in the Celts’ 68-53, Division I-championship win over Berkeley in the final game played Thursday night.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – The Chino Hills Huskies are just one victory away from wrapping up a season a perfection this Saturday night in Sacramento.

Coach Steve Baik’s crew earned the trip north via its latest dismantling of one of the state’s best squads, 84-62, over No. 2-ranked Bishop Montgomery before a standing-room-only crowd in the Walter Pyramid on the Long Beach State Campus this past Saturday in the Southern Regional Open Championship game.

The 34-0 Huskies, who play Northern champion Concord De La Salle at 8 o’clock in the Kings’ Sleep Train Arena, beat seven playoff foes (sectional and regional) in Open competition by an average margin of 30.2 points.

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LONG BEACH, Ca. – The matchups set for the State Southern Regional boys finals are such that the collective six games, split between the Walter Pyramid at Long Beach State and Colony High in Ontario, can be called “Rematch Saturday”.

Take a gander:

*The Open Division title game (8:30 p.m./Walter Pyramid), pitting 33-0 Chino Hills and 28-2 Bishop Montgomery, is a rematch of a contest played on Jan. 30 at Cerritos College.

The Huskies, despite falling behind 17-6 and later trailing by eight points with about six minutes to go, prevailed, 71-67, in front of an elbow-to-elbow, packed building;

*Crespi and Redondo, the top seeds in Division I who meet for the right to go to Sacramento next week on Saturday at 3 o’clock in the Walt Pyramid, hooked up in Encino March 4.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – The State Southern Regional semifinals are on tap for Tuesday night, with finals set for Saturday at Ontario Colony High (Division’s III-V) and Long Beach State’s Pyramid (Open-Division II).

Here is a look at the seven regional semifinals involving matchups of teams ranked in the most recent BurlisonOnBasketball Top 25, as well as the updated Top 25:

 

1. No. 3 Foothills Christian vs. No. 1 Chino Hills at Ontario Colony High

FB Says: The third meeting, with the Huskies prevailing by 20 points on Dec.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA – OK, we’re now at the “single-elimination” point of the prep basketball season in California.

There are no longer the safety nets of the regular season or in sectional play in the Open (when a loss dropped a team into the “consolation bracket”) or the other divisions (a spot in the semifinals or at least the final likely still mean a spot in the state regional play).

It is now “one-and-done”, baby.

And that includes 31-0 and top-ranked (nationally as well as in California) Chino Hills, where a loss anytime in its final four potential games (if there is a trip to the March 26 Open state title game in Sacramento) would do a lot to render an already stunning season as a “disappointment”.

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